


Begin Again - Stories Of An Ex-Human In Inkopolis

by N448



Series: Begin Again [3]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, F/F, Salmon Run (Splatoon), Slice of Life, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2020-07-31 20:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20121169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N448/pseuds/N448
Summary: Life hasn't been normal for Lily ever since she arrived in Inkopolis from twelve thousand years ago, and touched the lives of the New Squidbeak Splatoon and the musical duo Off the Hook. But now that she knows the truth behind her arrival, and has gained some closure on her old life, she has a chance to establish a new life, turn a previous hobby into a career, and experience the world's offerings in the name of preserving what's left of the human era.A collection of stories centered around Lily, an ex-human Inkling, and her friends to bridge the gap between Part 2 and Part 3.





	1. The Interview

If you wanted to know the history of evolution and the creatures that roamed the planet, you would go to the Shellendorf Museum.

If you wished to learn about the weapons and traditions of the Turf War, you would visit the Skipper Pavilion.

But if your interest was in life before modern marine civilization… You'd visit the Tentaport Institute of Humanities.

Situated in the Inkopolis Bay Area, Tentaport collected scientists of different disclipines under one roof - biologists, archeologists, linguists, historians and more - working together toward a common goal.

The understanding of the human race.

Since the uncovering of a fossil five years prior, excitement among the scientific community had peaked at the opportunity to study and learn about a completely new species.

As they learned more and more, some dreamed of the opportunity to speak with a human from that time period.

_'Hah, like that could ever happen.' Maybe there is a Cod out there…_

Senior researcher and project manager Mia Tura, an adult Inkling, stared at the notes on her desk. A list of talking points sat on top of the messy pile of documents. A list of talking points planned for an interview she was about to have.

The most important interview of her career.

It had begun with a strange event over two months ago that had seen odd impacts around Inkopolis and the surrounding country. The announcement from current pop idols Off The Hook that one item recovered from these impacts was a mobile phone device unlike any they had seen had set off rumblings within Tentaport, which had only exacerbated with news of a equally unique four-wheeled vehicle on the roof of the city's New Albacore Hotel.

Then came a call from a colleague in the South-Central Medical Lab, some time later. A labelled blood and DNA sample in refrigeration had caught their interest: 'Inkling DNA sample, unknown virus'. They had found the researcher in charge of those samples, had read through the notes, and recognised a familiar DNA pattern in the isolated cells, one that (barely) matched with samples taken from the bones archeologists had excavated.

They had contacted Mia, provided the documentation, and together they had worked through it to trace down the provider of the samples: a horseshoe crab who ran a Turf War weapons shop in Inkopolis Square.

The impetus to reach out though, came after this 'Sheldon' fellow began to collaborate with other teams in Tentaport, and started to provide _human speech recordings_ in hopes of fast-tracking a translation device. Some ancient recordings, and some clearly from a female inkling, speaking a phrase and then translating.

Mia had to know who this inkling was.

Despite their interest and the offerings of a financial reward, though, Sheldon would not reveal the subject's name or details for some time, and denied that there was anything special about them.

Mia had left a name and contact number, in case he changed his mind.

And only two weeks ago, Sheldon seemingly had. The 'truth', as he told it, was much grander than Mia had dreamed.

For 'Lily' was not simply a human enthusiast, had not just mastered the human language, was not simply collecting and restoring items from the human era.

Lily was, supposedly, born _from the human era_ and was living among them as an inkling.

“_They're a bit shy, and would prefer to stay out of the public eye, for the time being,_” he had said over the phone, “_but Lily has consented to talk with you. I will ask her to contact you when she is ready._”

Which led her to today. Lily, an Inkling with human DNA (or rather, an ex-human Inkling), would shortly be sitting across from her _at this desk_ and answering any questions she had.

And she had a _lot_ of questions.

The phone at her desk rang. Mia picked it up. “Mia speaking.”

“Hi Mia, are you expecting a Miss Lily Sunden today?”

_Hoooo boy. Deep breaths, Mia._ “Yes, has she just arrived?”

“That's correct.”

“Alright… send her in.” As she said that, looking about her office, she thought: _This place is in no condition to receive a guest._ “Actually,” she quickly interrupted, “direct her to the gardens. I will meet her there.”

“Alright… will do. Thanks.” The voice of Tentaport's receptionist clicked off.

* * *

The gardens that the Tentaport facility surrounded were also an exhibition of the discoveries that had been made. Human skeletons, fossilised contraptions, and recovered signage and objects from the human era were displayed proudly amongst beautiful flowers and hedges.

Mia walked through the gardens, clipboard in hand. She quickly found an inkling wearing the ‘Guest’ lanyard staring in awe at the original human fossil, recovered all those years ago.

“Good morning, madam,” Mia called as she approached, and the guest turned around. “Are you Lily Sunden?”

The girl wore a soft pink hoodie, and a blue tee underneath - Icewave, Mia believed. Today she was wearing black jeans and neon green sneakers. She had long, light-blue tentacles that hung lazily from underneath a beanie.

And, oddly, Mia noted that the inkling's right hand was covered in a black driver's glove. _A fashion statement, perhaps?_

The inkling girl nodded shyly, and bowed. “You… must be Doctor Tura?”

Mia smiled. She recognised the voice from Sheldon’s samples. “That’s right. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She glanced around - the gardens were nearly empty. “If I may ask, your contact Sheldon, he did ask you to bring some proof of your identity, yes?”

Lily nodded again, and looked around. Making sure nobody else saw, she slowly pulled a device from her pocket and placed it carefully in Mia’s hand.

Mia examined the device carefully. It seemed to be a display of some kind. Pressing the single button on its front lit up the screen and revealed its true nature.

It was a mobile phone. And on its display were characters she recognised from ancient texts.

This girl was the real deal.

Mia handed the device back. “Thank you. Wow. I uh… I admit I was quite skeptical about your credentials.” She gestured at some taller hedges in the corner of the garden. “There’s a meeting area nearby where we can talk in private, if you like.”

Lily nodded. “Lead the way.”

* * *

“Y'all know what time it is!”

“It's Off The Hook, live in Inkopolis Square to bring you an Inkopolis News Special Report!”

The Inkopolis News bulletins usually ran at 8AM and 5PM - almost never midday. The only exceptions were important breaking news - like the disappearance of, say, both the city's power source and one of its star idols - and its Special Reports.

And this wasn't just any special report, either. The news team had been hyping this up for a few days - a 'deep dive into the new discoveries surrounding humans'.

It seemed like the conclusion - or maybe the beginnings - to an ongoing series of discoveries of human artefacts and technology around the city. Few remembered the original story - about initial impacts around Inkopolis, and the recovery of a phone-like device from the Inkopolis News Studio - but interest had only grown since the next big story, the removal of an ancient car from the New Albacore Hotel a few weeks after.

Which is why many of the folks hanging out in Inkopolis Square at that time were focused on the screen affixed to the Deca Tower, where the familiar faces of Pearl and Marina, Off the Hook, introduced their story.

“So hey,” Pearl began, addressing her cohost, “the producers have been hyping up this 'human' story for a while, huh?”

“I don't blame them!” Marina replied excitedly. “Yes, folks. Ever since the initial fossil discoveries five years ago, scientists of all walks of life have gathered at the Tentaport Institute of Humanities to further their, and our, knowledge of what we now know as the human race. Who were they? What did they look like? What lives did they lead? What did they wear? What music did they listen to?”

“A week ago,” Pearl continued, straightening up in her chair, “the folks at Tentaport told us that they had made some key discoveries about humans, and asked if we would cover it. So, naturally, Marina went over.”

The screen then cut to a panning shot of the front of the Institute. As it cycled through establishing shots of the Institute, its interiors, and its people, Marina's voice introduced the piece. “The Tentaport Institute of Humanities may be a new development in the scientific community, but many of its staff are well established in their fields: biology, archeology, anthropology, linguistics, history… Nowadays they have come together to help each other build a more complete picture of humans and the world, and life, in which they lived.”

“As you can imagine,” said an older Inkling that had just appeared on screen, the lower third introducing her as 'Mia Tura, Senior Researcher', “we have to read very deeply and try new methods to grab new information from twelve thousand year old fossils. But the recovery of a working mobile phone, computing device, and car from that time period has blown open the doors in a way we didn't think was possible even two months ago…”

* * *

The meeting area consisted of a gazebo and several benches around the edges of what was otherwise an open, grassy area for gatherings. The tall hedges kept this area private, ‘separate’ from the rest of the garden.

“Well, Miss Lily,” Mia began, consulting the clipboard. “Let's start with the basics. Would you please tell me your full name?”

“Uhh, alright sure. Middle name too?”

Mia raised an eyebrow. “Just your first and family name shall be fine.”

“Oh, okay. Then uh, I'm Lily Sunden.”

“And your age?”

“20… in inkling years.”

“OK. What about your human name?”

“Oh. Uh…” Lily took a deep breath. She seemed nervous “S-Simon. Simon… Grey.”

“I see… Age in human years?”

“26.”

“I see…” Mia wrote all this down. “How do you wish to be addressed?”

“Lily, please.”

“Very well. Lily, As I'm sure you understand, we all have plenty of questions. But I guess I'll just start the interview proper with… well, how? Why?”

The younger inkling couldn't help but laugh a bit. “You know, I just found out for myself two months ago and I still don't get it.” She took a few breaths, collected her thoughts, and began. “You should… dispel any thought that I'm here for a greater purpose. The reality is… less fantastical. Well, actually…” She shook her head. “I'm… I guess I'm the result of a failed time travel experiment. I mean, it worked, but I don't think I was the intended target. I was just a nobody on the edge of countryside Australia.”

Mia's eyes lit up as she scribbled on her clipboard. “So… time travel is _possible_?”

“Eh…” Lily wobbled her hand from side to side, in a so-so manner. “I couldn't tell you how they did it. And besides me, I was only told they used it to transmit data between their time and one of their machines before it uh… broke down. But, _theoretically_ yes…” She shrugged her shoulders.

“…Hm.” More writing. “So, knowing that now, how did you come to arrive in Inkopolis?”

Lily thought for a moment on how best to phrase her response. “So, when they did their experiment… These people… created their portal inside the earth underneath my home. That caused a ravine to form and split apart the earth. And from the sounds of things, while me _and_ my family fell into it, along with these things that you've been seeing around the city… I was the only one that was 'lucky' enough to fall into the portal.” She sighed and looked away.

“I'm sorry, Lily.”

“It's… it's fine. I've had some time to come to terms with that. On… on _this_ side of the portal, I guess it formed in the sky above the Octo Canyon, and I ended up falling into someone's ink. It's because of that that I became an inkling. But then… Hmm… Once I… made it to Inkopolis, two people in that area have been looking after and taking care of me since.”

“I see. I've not been to the Octo Canyon, but I've certainly heard stories from some of my colleagues hailing from that area.” Mia paused to write down what Lily had told her. “So how are you taking the form of an inkling, then? Does your species shapeshift, and if so, how often do you return to your human form?”

“Well…” Lily shifted about uncomfortably. “Humans don't really shapeshift in general. I mean, inklings and octolings have their respective marine forms, but humans don't have that. Everything we do, we do with our humanoid form.”

Mia looked up with her eyebrow raised. “So then, how did your species climb walls, or swim, or partake in Turf War games?”

“Uhh…with my arms and legs?” Lily looked at her quizzically. “Granted, some walls were too smooth for us, but usually, there'll be some means for us to get up something. If we don't injure ourselves in the process. Or even in spite of injuring ourselves, thinking about it. For swimming, we'd just propel ourselves in the water with our limbs.”

“In the _water_, you say?” Mia looked up with some interest, and wrote it down.

Lily nodded. “As for Turf War and weapons… well, actually, I think it would be best if I _didn't_ answer that in detail. I'll only say that we did have weapons, and they were more destructive than the ink-based guns you have now, and I beg you and Inkopolis _not_ to attempt to recreate our weaponry.”

* * *

“Because of their bone structure,” Mia would explain as she strolled alongside Marina in the gardens some time later, “they had no equivalent to the inkling squid form - they used locomotion to do everything, from swimming, to climbing. And they didn't have ink, to recharge, or fend off predators, or partake in turf wars. Instead to recharge themselves they'd drink water, and to defend themselves they'd make use of their limbs _as weapons_, or craft other weaponry to fight with…”

* * *

“So if you did not have an alternate form, then, how are you an inkling?”

Lily shook her head. “Sorry. I look like this for good now.” She gestured at herself. “As I said earlier, when I came through on your side of the portal, I landed in a puddle of ink. Medical tests say that the inkling cells were corrupting or replacing my own—”

“Aaaah.” Mia nodded suddenly. “Okay. Yes. I've been shown the test data.”

“You… know?” Lily actually looked surprised.

“It was how we started to learn about you, of course. From Sheldon's DNA samples. You probably understand then how long we've been hoping to talk to you.” She scribbled down some more notes. “So from your perspective then… why do you think that that happened?”

“Well… I'm attributing it to just evolution.” Lily shrugged. “Y'know, how life will gain new defenses and then evolve more potent defenses and so on. Now, I don't _know_ this but, I imagine marine life has been doing that constantly for thousands and thousands of years. But I was exactly the same human from twelve thousand years back, with no opportunity to evolve against any of these traits. So I landed in the ink, and it just… went wild with my body. I had no chance.”

“So then you're… an inkling now?”

“Yes. Well, I guess an inkling with a human's mind, _but_, an inkling in form and function nonetheless.”

“I see, I see.” She sat back and thought for a few moments. “So, then, how have you taken to life in Inkopolis?”

“Hmm.” Lily took her time responding to this one. “I suppose things have been about fifty times more interesting since I got here. I'm _certainly_ more physically active, with turf wars and such… Work is… well for now work is just finding stuff that arrived when I did, retrieving as much of that stuff as I can. Making sure that can all be preserved. I've already made a number of close friends, though more out of circumstance. I actually feel that I'm generally… happier here.”

Mia smiled. “We're glad to hear that. I'm no fitness expert, but I think some of your increased activity would also be responsible for your increased happiness.”

* * *

“We can be proud that today's society brings together marine life of all kinds,” spoke a biologist to the camera. “It appears so far that while humans shared the planet with all types of creatures, none of them shared quite the same sapiency. Some came close - an ancient marine species called 'dolphins' and the pre-human 'primates' - but humans and their cities and constructions dominated most of the planet's landscape at the time.”

* * *

The adult inkling checked her notes. “Any challenges you feel are unique to you? Any advantages?”

“Uhh, well certainly finding out what was the norm was a task…” Lily let out a little laugh. “The friends I had had at the time were busy, so while they'd taught me a little bit, I ended up having to just sorta observe and learn, and hopefully not draw _too_ much attention… And that went, er… 'well'. Uh.. advantages… I suppose an outside perspective of the city and its people have allowed me to um… think outside the box a little bit?”

Mia nodded. From the sound of things, there didn't seem to be too many unexpected challenges. But as she looked through her notes so far, something was bothering her, the extreme difference between both ages she had given… “If I may return to your age for a moment,” she said, “How did you decide on 20 as your 'inkling' age?”

Lily nodded. She understood. “It was the best estimate that I could come up with, basically. Human years were 365 days. Well, not _exactly_ 365, but for most purposes we go with that…”

* * *

“It seems the discoveries at Tentaport are only just beginning,” Marina explained in her report, “and they are even double checking their work with other fields outside of the Institute, like the little-known Dopefish Observatory, outside of the city.”

“We currently believe,” the chief astronomer at the Observatory communicated to Marina and the audience via a recorded video-link conversation, “that from what we've seen of Tentaport's findings, the earth and the moon used to spin just a little faster around our sun in the human era. That may not seem like much, but that means shorter, and _fewer_ days compared to today. From what we know so far, it seems humans celebrated a new year every 365 days… except for once every four years, in which they added an extra day. We don't know why, yet.”

“In addition to that,” Marina told the camera in a new solo shot as she walked toward it, “humans marked their years differently to our society today. Whereas we mark the new year on the day the moon is closest to us, humans marked one full cycle of the planet around the sun on the day it was _closest_ to the sun. Where we watched the tides, they instead watched the bright skies.”

* * *

Lily took a deep breath, and allowed herself a laugh and grin. “I promise I'm not actually that smart, but y'know, I got curious and had an idea of where to look. Plus I didn't feel comfortable just saying I was 26 while my friends and colleagues were more mature than me and yet were like 6+ years younger.”

Mia grinned. “That’s fair. We could probably have someone look into the math for you, figure out what your true age would be. Do any of your friends know about your true self…? Aside from Sheldon, of course.”

Lily nodded. “All of my closest friends, and a few that I check in with now and then. And the two that found me when I had first, ah, ‘landed’ and was unconscious. They've seen my human…self.”

“And you trust them?”

“Of course. You’ve not heard anything about me from the public, have you?”

“I suppose not,” Mia admitted. Then, thinking back, she added, “though there was that news story about the ancient car, and Pearl… oh! That was _you_ she mentioned, wasn't it? So _those two_ have figured you out, at least.”

Lily sighed, and nodded. She’d forgotten that Pearl, one half of Off The Hook and the Inkopolis News, had ratted her out before the duo had learned what was really going on. “I’m… surprised less people picked up on that. Maybe they did and thought it was a joke.”

“Perhaps.” Mia stood, and gestured for Lily to do the same as she began to walk. “So how did you come to interact with them?”

“I mean…” Lily pushed herself up onto her feet as they made their way back out into the gardens. “I was there when the car was brought down from the roof of that hotel and they were doing that news piece. I…” She seemed to pause for a moment, like she had to decide what to tell, what to leave out. “I think they were starting to figure out where the things that struck Inkopolis a few months ago actually came from, and they kept seeing me with these things. I guess they pieced enough together to call me out directly, and… yeah, they found out. They were not very happy, hence Pearl's callout, but… I think we managed to convince them I was alright.” Lily frowned.

“Do you keep in contact with them?”

“A little. Not very much at the moment.”

“I see. Alright.” Mia looked at her notes so far. “Well, from what I've heard so far, I think you may be able to help us further in identifying some of our discoveries.”

As they walked along the gardens, toward the row of displays of human fossils and artefacts (none she recognised as belonging to her, so far), they passed along another tall hedge separating another private part of the garden. Mia led Lily into the area, and as she saw what was inside, the ex-human's mouth fell open.

Among the items gathered here at Tentaport, was the ancient car - a Ford Falcon - lifted from the New Albacore Hotel's roof.

_Lily's_ car.

* * *

“Interestingly,” Mia remarked to Marina, who was behind the camera in the current shot, “humans didn't only communicate in one language. Though most research has been done into what was apparently called 'English', several other writing scripts have been discovered in ruins and other discoveries. We think that humans in different cities, or perhaps different parts of the world, both spoke and wrote different languages, but we've not conclusively proved that yet.”

“Fascinating!” Marina said, genuinely excited. “Do you think the different humans would have ever needed to talk to each other? And if so, how do you believe they bridged the language gap?”

“So far we don't know enough to say for sure. But most of what we've found is in this 'English', and some of this text is in English alongside other scripts. It's possible that English was the 'main' language of humans, at least at one point, or common enough that many people knew it alongside their preferred language.”

* * *

Mia procured a key from a ring in her pocket, and carefully unlocked the display next to the vehicle that held its keys, and carefully handed them to Lily.

Lily clutched them tightly to her chest, like she had lost them for a long time. Mia supposed that she actually had. She turned toward the car and pointed a small device on the keyring toward it, pushing one of its buttons.

Mia jumped when the vehicle responded with a strange shifting noise. “Uh - what did you just do…?”

Lily smiled, and walked towards the vehicle, reaching for the driver's side door handle. “Unlocked it,” she told the older inkling with a smile as she pulled the door open.

The young inkling slid into the driver's seat of the vehicle as smoothly as any other driver would, Mia included. She sat back against the black seat cover with the red 'dragon tattoo'-styled print, taking it all in. “God, it's great to be back,” she said to herself, opening various compartments, checking what was there. “Though I did expect this,” she said to Mia, gesturing at the steering wheel. “Being unable to see out the front properly.”

“Well, humans _were_ taller,” Mia noted with a grin.

“Sure, but, y'know, this world is sized for y'all so that I forget that a lot.” She leaned across to the passenger seat's glove compartment, and started rummaging through it, pulling out manuals and service logs. “But like I actually _feel_ small in this thing.”

“How many people is it supposed to fit?”

“Five.” She nodded her head toward the back seats. “That middle seat is smaller, but yeah. Come, take a seat. I've got some driving stories to tell.”

* * *

“What we know about humans is increasing at a rapid pace now that Tentaport has decoded the English script,” Marina said as the camera panned across the institute's various displays. “And it's only bound to keep doing so. With so much to learn, wouldn't it be nice to just _meet one_ and ask them about their lives?”

The last shot of the report was one more interview scene with Marina and Mia. “So far it seems that humans lived similar lives to our own, Mia. Do you think that they could live among us if they were somehow still alive?”

“Not at all, if the entire human race came knocking on Inkopolis's doorstep,” Mia laughed. “For just a few, or even one human, perhaps… They… would have plenty of trouble using many of the things that we do, due to their larger size, but who's to say that they, or we, couldn't adjust? As it stands now, however, with this old world essentially opened up to us, we feel that there is still plenty to learn about them, the past, and the planet we all live on.”

The film faded to black.

When it faded back up, viewers were greeted by Pearl and Marina, back in the studio. “Sounds like you had an enlightening time over there,” smirked Pearl to her co-host.

“That I did!” Marina squealed. “And I had such a great time putting all that together with our crew as well! Thank you to the staff and especially Doctor Mia Tura of the Tentaport Institute of Humanities for reaching out and collaborating with us on that special report.”

“And thanks for droppin' all that sweet knowledge!” Pearl grinned to the camera. “Both of you!”

“Aww, Pearlie…” Marina blushed and grinned. “Mia was a pleasure to talk to, and it was lovely to explore these …theoretical situations with her as well.”

“No doubt they'll continue to stun us with more stories about the human world in the future,” Pearl nodded. “Well, that'll do it from us! Thanks for checkin' this special report with us!”

“And until next time…”

“Don't get cooked, stay off the hook!”  
“Don't get cooked, stay off the hook!”

The screen in Inkopolis Square cut back to its usual billboard display.

“…So,” Pearl started, a few seconds after they'd gone off the air and the crew manning the cameras and mics had left the studio. “You reckon _she_ had a hand in that?”

“Lily? Yeah, of course she would,” Marina grinned. “I mean, I trust those guys at the Institute. But to suddenly get all this info, _and_ an English cipher? Yeah, that's totally her.”

“You reckon she's 'out'?”

“Nah. I mean, Mia knew we knew about her, and even then, around the cameras she never mentioned Lily. I imagine she made sure they kept quiet about her. That girl's still keeping her old life secret.”

“Mmm.” Pearl paused and turned to her phone for a few moments. After a few seconds of silence she said, “I'm gonna message her. Get this confirmed.”

* * *

“Oh my gosh, that's a Wii U,” Lily stared in amazement as Mia introduced the fossil excavation.

“A… what?” Mia glanced at her, then back to the fossil. “It seems like it would be a game console of some kind, like those, er, Gamestations and Nintendos we have here.”

“It is!” Lily grinned. “Exactly like… those.” Even a month ago she was absolutely stunned that a company called Nintendo that produced game consoles and games still existed in Inkopolis - but the novelty had worn off since and she had accepted it as just another weird thing about this world. No doubt a wild coincidence.

“Well, that was easy,” Mia laughed. “Alright, well, that's about everything that _I_ had to ask. This has been a very enlightening discussion, thank you, Miss Lily.”

“Not a problem, I hope I've been at least some help…” Lily smiled to her.

“More than you know. We just have one last stop before we send you home, though we would like to follow up on some of your answers in the future. How much do you know of the language you grew up speaking?”

Lily cocked an eyebrow. “I remember the English alphabet very well still. The structure of our languages seem to be similar enough that any translation should be relative light work, I would hope.”

“I see.” Mia looked like she had just struck gold. “Do you think you could provide some details and a cipher of your alphabet to ours to our chief linguist?”

Lily thought, considering the offer. _Providing the basics wouldn't be too hard. I can only tell them so much with my limited knowledge, but with an alphabet they could at least start to decipher our text._ “I don't see why not,” she finally replied, with a warm smile. “Again, I'm no expert, but I should be able to provide enough for you to do what you are trying to do…”

“That's all we ask.” Mia smiled, and started to head for one of the doors back inside, out of the gardens. “Please follow me, then.”

* * *

Lily stepped back out of the front doors of the Tentakeel Institute of Humanities nearly two and a half hours after she had entered them. She had poured as much of her knowledge of the old world as she could to the chief researcher who had sought her out.

And before she had left, she had given them the means to decode even more discoveries and knowledge from the human era.

She turned briefly to face the building again. She wondered what they would find first.

She pulled out her main phone. It was an inkPhone like most squids owned, and she'd put a snazzy retro case on it.

_First things first._ She opened the camera on the phone and took a selfie standing in front of the building, pulling her hoodie up as she did. She sent the resulting photo to her partner, with the message 'Just got out, how's Ranked treating you?'.

Then she plugged in some earphones, started up a music playlist on the phone, then popped the phone in her pocket and began to stroll along the street, blending in with the marine life walking along the sidewalk as she made her way toward a train station.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go again!
> 
> This is a sort of 'Part 2.5', Post-'Legacy' but before the main events that will be Part 3. As opposed to what I've been writing so far, these chapters will be somewhat disconnected from each other, about different adventures and scenarios in Begin Again's version of Inkopolis and beyond. This is not really supposed to be a build-up toward Part 3, more just a way to show how the world has evolved since Part 2.
> 
> It's good to be back.


	2. The Salmon Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily, Lorne, Remo and Eight take a few Salmon Run shifts looking for an artefact.

The boat sailed through the choppy waters as it made its way toward the third outpost they were scheduled to operate at today.

Aside from a single staff member overseeing supplies (the boat was being remotely steered), the only people on board were Remo, Lorne, Lily, and Eight.

All four of them were Agents of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, Agents 3, 4, 5, and 8 respectively.

And unbeknownst to Grizzco, they were on a mission today.

This was their first day taking Grizzco shifts - their 'intended' job was to visit three sites in the territory, cull the Salmonid population as they came ashore to breed and lay Power Eggs, collect said eggs - _especially_ the eggs that came from the bigger, more advanced Salmonids, what Mr. Grizz had called 'Golden Eggs' - and deposit them at a collection point before moving on to the next site to do the same thing.

Grizzco work was hard enough - the tiny Salmonids, the Chum, swarmed if you let them get too close and overwhelmed you, and the big guys, the Cohocks, hit hard with their frying pans and would down you quickly. Not to mention all of the horrifying machines and monsters that seemed to form the backbone of the attacks when the team stepped onto the ground, dividing your attention every which way just trying to stay alive long enough to figure out how to take them down to take their Golden Eggs. And the weather here was an anomaly - fog could roll in at short notice, plunging team efforts into chaos, and the unnatural tides sometimes meant there was nowhere to run or swim when you got surrounded.

Lorne was most used to the work, having done this the most. Remo, with all his New Squidbeak Splatoon training and the situations he'd been through with Cap'n Cuttlefish, had become more comfortable with the task, more quickly than Lily or Agent Eight, who had only been trained against Inklings or Octolings and were still reduced to panic and fright when the going got tough and Salmonids began swarming in on them.

Their mission, the one they had been forced to go to Grizzco for, only added stress to the team.

For it was known to the four agents that somewhere in this dreary, unnerving part of the world, was some item from the human era.

And they wanted to recover it before it was lost, or perhaps destroyed.

At the front of the deck, watching and waiting for the next outpost, the next chance to find this artefact, were Remo and Lorne chatting away about the better ways to take down the 'boss' Salmonid creatures. Meanwhile, Lily and 'Eight' sat just outside the cabin and shared one of the few food rations they had been allotted for the day.

Lily watched her coworkers suspiciously.

Callie and Marie, the Squid Sisters, and in a sense her superiors in the New Squidbeak Splatoon, had caught up to her and Lorne and, while talking, had learned that she still didn't remember the latter half of her encounter with Tartar. But more to the point, _none_ of the others had seen fit to fill her in from their perspective, not even Lorne.

“She's just not ready yet!” Lorne had protested. “It'll hurt her!”

But the Sisters had, over Lorne's complaints, seen fit to tell Lily what had happened, as the Cap'n had told it to them - how she had been found linked to Commander Tartar, in the process of being cooked alive when the Cap'n, Remo, Lorne, Pearl, and Marina lost her radio signal. How she had 'totally lost it' as Marie put it, attacking him repeatedly with a makeshift weapon until he was totally destroyed, ranting and screaming throughout. And how she had simply keeled over once it was all over, and the others had carried her back to the train station and watched her nervously until they could get her back to Inkopolis and more importantly, to a hospital.

“It seems,” Marie finished, “that your actions out there frightened a few of our friends. And perhaps,” she glanced meaningfully at Lorne, “they elected not to tell you because they worried you would lash out at them…”

Of course Lily was angry - but moreso hurt. Her trust had taken a hit. But in her brief time at Grizzco, the first mission she had taken with the Squidbeaks since their expedition to the Triggerfish Forest, her diminished anger and frustration had turned to a new target: Mr. Grizz himself.

_'Just stay alive til the end of your shift.' God the way he was so casual about saying that…_

“Lily,” Eight grumbled, an Octoling boy with his tentacles styled in a mohawk, and Lily snapped out of her thoughts to glance at him. “Why'd you have to go and get one of your things lost in this awful place?”

Lily finally finished swallowing the small bite she'd taken from the bread they were sharing, and offered it to him again. “Excuse you, mate,” she told him flatly, her mood shot. “I hope you're joking, because I had no say in the matter, and I hate this as much as you do.”

Eight nodded, and sighed, taking the bread. What was left of their will after yesterday had worn away, and they still had two outposts to check out.

“Ye'll pull into Marooner's Bay shortly,” called the voice of Mr. Grizz, broadcasting over the boat's loudspeakers. “Lookin' clear on the coast, tide's low but not too bad. Yer doin' well so far, kids. Keep it up.”

Lily sighed, and once Eight has finished his bite, they set the rations aside and climbed to their feet, slowly making their way over to Remo and Lorne.

Together they watched the beached, deconstructed ship hull come into view, the abandoned refinery and wooded coast just beyond it. The odd towers and buoys hovering nearby... It made Lily uneasy, still.

Lorne bent down in front of the one carry-on they were allowed, on the floor with them, and with the others blocking the supply staff from seeing, pulled out an odd weapon-looking device.

It was a scanner, tuned to a uniquely trackable 'scent' particle that had so far emitted from every thing they had collected so far from the human era.

Lorne held it out toward the Marooner's Bay, holding the trigger down, and panned it in a slow arc, from one side of the area to the other. The others held their breath or crossed their fingers.

And as it pointed toward the small beach on the coast, the scanner started to make loud clicking noises, akin to a geiger counter.

The object they were seeking was here.

"Oh, thank goodness," Remo noted with a sigh of relief. "We've finally found it." He turned to Lily, a relieved but nervous look on his face. "That's something to be happy for, right?"

Lily grumbled. "I mean, _yes_, but I think we still need to actually hold the Salmonids at bay long enough to do what we need to..." She glanced at him with a concerned look, and Remo's eyes darted away.

The ex-human sighed and watched as their Grizzco boat inched closer to their destination.

The two boys had been almost keeping her at arm's length, especially while they were on this mission. They seemed almost scared of her when she started to get frustrated with Mr. Grizz, or the so-called 'Boss Salmonids', as if she was going to start hurting them instead if they interfered.

Lily shook the thoughts away. She didn't need to stress about that just yet. She turned her attention to the workspace in front of her. As the boat swung around, giving her and the others a complete view of the Marooner's Bay, Lorne continued to scan the boat's structure and the area around it, trying to narrow down the location of the artefact they were seeking.

"Alright, get your gear and prepare to go to work," Mr. Grizz ordered them over the speakers. "They're due to start coming up any moment, so DON'T MISS ANY PRECIOUS GOLDEN EGGS!"

Eight and Lily winced as Grizz suddenly shouted the last words, and everyone moved to various parts of the ship to get the tanks and weapons they had been allotted for the day. Lorne, as soon as she was done, rushed to move their carry-on.

As the single staff member on board quickly moved to find fresh stocks of special kits, Lorne approached Lily as she fastened the tank to her back and held the scoped E-Liter 4K Grizzco had lent her for the day, with a moment of just wishing she had something more similar to the weapons she had already used.

Lorne reached over the side of the boat, towards two tall, thin canisters that held legally mandated liferafts. She grabbed one, stuffed it into the carry-on, and held the full bag toward Lily. "Bad news, hun. Looks like it's in the water toward the coast. Stash this somewhere on that side of the worksite, and be ready to move as soon as it's clear. Alright?"

Agent 5 sighed, and nodded, taking the bag. "Alright. Here's hoping that old suit works still. Let's go to work."

"AND WEAR YOUR RADIOS, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!" Grizz barked again, apropos of nothing.

Everyone grumbled, gathering back at the front, fully equipped and radioed up. It was a requirement of the job - Mr. Grizz seemed the type to keep a very close eye on the job, and wanted to be able to hear every word of the team's communications - something the New Squidbeak Splatoon were not thrilled with... but they'd figured out a way to keep their plans secret, at least until they needed to take control of the situation.

"Everyone remember the strategy?" Lorne said confidently, the first words broadcasted back to Mr. Grizz, now that their 'break' was over. "Once we get on-site, spread out, cover the whole space. We need fast movement away from the Salmonids. Once that's done, or if they arrive prematurely, we'll meet on the low terrain. Since it's low tide, they'll likely make landfall there. Then it's just business as usual."

Remo, Eight and Lily nodded. "Any idea how long they'll attempt to come aground?" Remo asked.

"Not over til it's over, rookie," Grizz told them over the headsets, calmer. "Just get as many eggs as you can and stay alive."

The boat eventually came to a halt between the coast and the wrecked boat, and the single staff member immediately went to work lowering the ship's anchor from the controls in the cabin. "Alright, here's our stop," Grizz remarked. "Get to work."

"...Alright." Lorne nodded to her coworkers, then shifted and super jumped off toward the wrecked boat on the bay.

Remo, Lily, and Eight were right behind her, and as soon as they landed they were off, Remo covering the far side of the coast with a Roller, Eight inking the boat itself with a Blaster, Lorne heading south to ink up some of the beach with a pair of Dualies, and Lily left to cover the docks with her Charger-type weapon.

For Lily, she made a beeline for the farthest dock, closest to the coast, where a buoy gently bobbed just beside it. Inking straight lines with the E-Liter she was given, she raced over there with the bag she had been given, ran up the few steps toward it, then leapt up, lifted her body onto the buoy itself briefly, and deposited the bag, tying it to one of its supports to keep it safe.

Leaping back down, she looked up at it. _No way to see it from down here. Excellent._

Waiting to charge up a shot was bothersome, but she quickly found that the resulting blast from the E-Liter travelled quite far - enough so that she was able to roughly coat the dock in ink from one end. She spent a minute or so inking up as much of the area as she could, working her way up back toward the beach, where the group were to meet.

"HEY!" The voice of Mr. Grizz barked in Lily's ear, and she winced. "Quit dallying, inkling! Your friends are waiting for you! Go go go!"

_Well he wasn't watching then,_ Lily remarked in her head. _At least I don't look suspicious, just_ _stupid. I can deal with that for now..._

She met up with the others down by a basket on the beach two minutes later. "All set?" Remo asked her as she arrived.

Lily gave the group a thumbs up. "All set. Let's do this."

"Noticing a bit more activity than normal around here," Grizz radioed to them. "I'll activate one of the cannons. Profreshional, I want you on that. Cover your friends."

"If you say so, Grizz," Lorne replied, and looked up toward the wreck they were standing in front of, where an odd orb-shape cannon blinked to life, switched on remotely. She began to make her way around the side, up the propeller lifts so she could get to it.

As they heard the cannon above turn on, Lorne manning the control, they all heard the sound of a horn being blown, somewhere off the coast.

The Salmonids were beginning their attack.

They rushed ashore from the leftmost stretch of beach, about ten of the small and regular Salmonids, the Smallfries and Chums as Lorne had told the others. They charged toward the three on the beach in a frenzy as more horns sounded in the background.

Lily, Remo and Eight launched into action. "Behind me!" Remo shouted, leading the charge, Roller down and splatting a line down the middle of the charging Salmonids. Eight followed, Blasting enemies down the side of the charge at any Salmonids that they passed while Lily, hanging back, carefully picked off the more distant targets.

Another horn sounded and Lorne's cannon turned. Over the radio she called, "Lily, take the right! They're coming up there now!"

Lily backed off and inked up a path over to the opposite stretch of beach, where indeed more of the crazed creatures were surfacing. Behind them emerged a Cohock, one of the larger Salmonids Lily had been told about, who looked tough and looked like a heavy hitter with that big frying pan he carried. And behind _him_...

Lily faltered for a moment as she saw the tower of pots rise into view. More and more of them. The collection was at least four times her height. And on top was a... mechanical head of sorts. It whipped around wildly as it searched for something to lock onto.

"There! Get its eggs!" Grizz called in her ear.

But the approaching Salmonids on the ground took Lily's attention first, and she pulled back as she charged up her E-Liter and let off a blast, taking out a line of Salmonids in a line, save the Cohock at the back - though well-inked it wasn't quite through yet.

The fire of a cannon behind her made her jump slightly, and a moment later a blast of explosive ink took out even more of the horde that had made it ashore. A second blast, aimed at the tower of pots, knocked many of them away. "Quick, knock the last few away!" Lorne called over her radio. "Before it can fire off its Sting Ray!"

Lily rushed forward as the Stinger's eyes locked onto the duo of Remo and Eight on the other side of the beach, dealing with their own horde, and flung a Splat Bomb toward it even as she approached. The bomb, bouncing along the ground, detonated quickly and the two pots it still had were flung back into the sea, and the head slammed into the burner at its base and burst, revealing three Golden Eggs.

She ran up to them, grabbed one, and tried to grab another - but found that they were too big for her to do that. She fretted for a moment, wondering what to do...

"C'mon kid! Go!" Grizz shouted in her ear. "Deposit that one and come back!"

"Don't worry, Lily! I'll make sure they can't grab those in the meantime!" Lorne called.

Lily nodded and, leaving another bomb behind her, ran for the egg basket.

Meanwhile, Remo and Eight were taking care of their own rush of Salmonids. Neither had really worked with each other until now - the only idea they had of the other's competence was their battle from what felt like long ago.

It felt strange to Remo to put his trust in an Octoling, even after everything he and Eight had been through. But thankfully, either due to his military training or his time in the Metro, Eight was doing well with the weapon he'd been loaned. The Roller that Remo had been given was doing well enough for the small enemies, such that the two could just mow through them.

"Boss! To our left!" Eight called, suddenly firing at something emerging from the ocean. Remo whipped around, coming face to face with a Steelhead.

Remo's face dropped. They hadn't faced one of these yet. "Lorne!" He called into the radio as he and Eight backed off, firing at the great beast, though their ink splashed harmlessly off its armor. "We got a Steelhead. What's the strategy?"

"Not doing that," Mr. Grizz told them flatly.

"You wanna help them be a better worker or not, Grizz?!" Lorne chastised, hoping her profreshional status would protect her. "Wait for it to start charging a bomb, guys, then attack that!" As she spoke, another boom from the cannon sounded, and an explosive ink round landed among the mass of creatures further back on the beach, splatting and dispersing them.

"Got it," Remo replied, and glanced at Eight briefly. "I'm not sure I can get enough height with a Roller fling, Eight. I'll do what I can to fend everything else off if you can attack that."

Eight met his glance and nodded at him.

And then they both heard the sound of something growing, inflating.

Remo and Eight both turned toward the noise, and saw the Steelhead, and something filling up on its head.

The bomb.

Eight's weapon instinctively snapped back up and he fired his Blaster toward it, even as he and Remo backed away, Eight heading back through their ink and Remo pushing forward through with the Roller.

Despite several good shots on the Steelhead's bomb, it still shot off from its head, toward Eight.

"Three! The bomb! I'm backing off!" Eight called as he zipped backwards in octopus form as the projectile landed where he had been, exploding a moment later in a splash of dark, sickly green, after which he charged back into the fray.

The crew was kept busy over the next half-hour, even as at points the attack lulled and Lily, Remo and Eight were able to briefly regroup underneath Lorne's cannon, sharing encouraging words and checking on how many Golden Eggs they had accrued. Otherwise they worked in pairs as Remo and Eight, and Lily and Lorne repelled the Salmonids.

And then, suddenly there were none left ashore. The Agents looked around and waited for a minute, thinking it just another lull, but then Mr. Grizz's voice came in over the radios. "Looks like they're backing off. And we got a decent collection of eggs out of it. It'll do. Alright, come back to the boat."

Lily and Eight let out an audible sigh of relief. The former checked her hat. _Excellent_, she thought to herself. She still had both Splashdown charges. She'd need them.

Remo gave her a nod, knowing what was next, and after Lily handed him her weapon to take back, he and Lorne super-jumped back over to the Grizzco boat.

The remaining team, however, rushed away from the beach over to the dock area. As Lily climbed up onto the buoy to retrieve the bag she had left earlier, thankfully untouched, Mr. Grizz radioed them again. "Hey. Kids. Yer done here. And company rules forbid bringing external equipment on-site. Return to the boat."

Agents Five and Eight ignored him. Instead Five radioed to their counterparts on the boat. "Aight Three, Four, I'm suiting up." They unzipped the bag and pulled everything out - the deployable liferaft, the old diving suit and the Tracker. Lily immediately set about putting the suit on, with Eight to help.

"Is that a liferaft FROM MY BOAT?!" Grizz shouted at them. "That's private property! RETURN TO THE BOAT, WITH THAT RAFT! Or we're writing you off," he finished, threatening them.

She tucked her tentacles into the suit, then fitted the diving helmet on over her head and fastened it to the rest of the suit. She keyed her mic as Eight grabbed the liferaft tube and deployed it into the water next to them, then began to use the Tracker to scan for the artefact they were here for. "We're not deserting. Give us three minutes and our mission will be over. Waters clear, guys?"

Remo, scoped in with Lily's loaned E-Liter, responded, Lorne with a pair of binoculars beside him. "Looks like it. Could change though. Better hurry. Hope that suit works."

"What is going on here?!" Grizz growled in frustration, realising the situation was falling out of his control.

Once Lily was suited up and the raft was ready to go, Eight pointed stood back and nodded. "Good luck, Agent 5," the Octoling said. "I'd better get back to the boat."

Lily nodded as she slid from the dock into the small liferaft. "Make sure he doesn't leave without me," she replied with a smirk.

As she heard Eight super jump away, she nervously took hold of the paddles the raft had been deployed with. _Better work fast_, she thought as she experimentally tested each one, taking a moment to remember how to row, before setting off, rowing as hard as she could against the waters, trying to move fast.

"...So, 'Agent', huh?" Mr. Grizz returned after a few quiet moments of rowing, quieter, calmer but still angry. "Yes, I've heard stories from the war, of the Squidbeak Splatoon and their so-called 'daring missions'. But I assumed you folks had disbanded long ago. Or perhaps," he wondered aloud to her, "you four are slimy hipster wannabes trying to play spy...Trying to follow in the footsteps of your heroes. What're you even here for, anyway? Why're yer disrespectin' my business, my efforts?"

"Oh wh— Lily, we're starting to move!" Lorne radioed in. Lily's eyes snapped toward the boat, to her right, and saw that indeed it was starting to slowly move off from its position.

"Stop it!" Lily called back anxiously, checking the waters around her again with the Tracker. She was now about thirty meters out, and judging by the clicking of the Tracker, she was nearly above it. She pushed herself to keep rowing further. "I'm almost there!"

"What're yer expectin' to find, kid?" Grizz chimed in again. "You realise that you're surrounded by death, right?"

"...I'm aware," Lily finally replied to him. "But there's something here we need to preserve. An item of the past that we can't lose."

"And? Even if that were true, you realise anything found in these territories belongs to Grizzco Industries? I'm not lettin' ya smuggle whatever it is out of here, not without some compensation at least. Either way, I've decided I'm not interested in sticking around to see if you survive. Thanks for the Golden Eggs. Farewell."

Lily grumbled, pushing harder, rowing as fast as she was able. Even with her friends struggling against the remotely-piloted Grizzco boat, she now had a time limit. Even if she did survive what she had to do... she did not want to be stranded.

"Five! Behind you!" Remo called over the radio, and Lily turned to see...

A bobbing fishing lure, making its way toward her craft.

Maws.

As the boats grew closer together, the Grizzco boat taking a path around the Marooner's Bay to get back to the open waters, Remo let loose a shot of pressurized E-Liter ink that shot into the water, aimed at the creature that awaited just underneath the lure as it grew closer to Lily. It had no effect.

But then the lure disappeared beneath Lily's raft, and her eyes went wide.

"LILY! QUICK! BOMB!" Lorne shouted hurriedly.

Lily did two things.

She unholstered a Splat Bomb from its holster, set its fuse and dropped it on the boat.

And as she did, she pushed herself up and over the front of the boat as she tore open and activated one of the special sachets.

Activating a Splashdown.

Maws made its appearance as she did, crashing through the flimsy inflatable raft and tearing it to shreds, inadvertantly gulping down the Splat Bomb she'd left.

And as she hovered in the air, moments before the Splashdown mechanism would fling her downward toward the ground, she saw Maws burst, cooked from the inside by the bomb. Three Golden Eggs floated in the water next to her, amongst remnants of the raft she was just in.

And then Agent 5 was flung into the water, propelled by the Splashdown's power.

She sank like a stone.

"Lily?!" Eight radioed in in a panic.

"Lily, you alright?" Agent 4 also called in. "Let us know as soon as you can. I don't see your spirit, which I _think_ is good..."

The water was murky with a greenish tinge. She looked around as she sank, trying to see anything around her. But she couldn't see a thing.

She got the impression after a moment that her descent had halted, or at least slowed to a crawl. She took the other Splashdown satchel and tore it open, and as it activated she felt the water rush past her as she sank with renewed force.

She was surprised when her feet touched the rocky, dusty ground. Sooner than she had expected. Visibility was rotten - she only seemed to be able to see two meters in front of her. The diving suit was holding up, but the water pressure pushing against her, trying to crush her, was incredibly uncomfortable.

She also realised quickly that she, and her fellow agents, had neglected to find a working oxygen tank for the diving suit. The oxygen she had was whatever had seeped in from the surface.

The sooner she finished this the better.

Agent 5 took steps through the water, working in almost slow motion, continuing toward where the Tracker had last indicated the presence of the artefact. Finally she breathed, "This is surreal... It has to be nearby."

"Oh thank goodness you're alive!" Four called in. "Any sign of it yet?"

"No," Five replied, scanning the area with her eyes - the Tracker would be rendered useless under the water, and so it was fixed to Lily's waist inside the suit. "I can't be far off though..."

The sea floor was nearly barren here. Here and there were vague signs that Salmonid nests may have passed through or lived nearby - frying pans and cooking utensils were the most common thing she saw down here.

She found herself approaching what looked like a nest of sorts. _Uh oh..._ she stepped carefully, but couldn't see any creatures about. Not yet, anyway...

And then, among what was seemingly a pile of 'treasure', she saw it.

It looked like a black brick with wires hanging out of it.

It looked like an external storage drive, like those she'd seen in IT stores across Inkopolis.

Carefully, making sure nothing saw her, she picked it up to examine it.Though worn... the text and logo on its top was human.

This was it.

She held it tightly to her and leapt up, beginning to swim back upward, as her lungs began to ache, struggling to find new oxygen in her suit.

"Got it...!" she radioed in briefly. "Coming up..."

"Good work!" Remo said cheerfully. "We managed to stop the boat from moving, so we'll be right here for you. Eight and Lorne are on their way out in the other liferaft."

Agent 5 said nothing in response, trying to focus on swimming upward with one arm holding the device to her. Swimming like this only exerted her more, and she began to feel ill, and the pain in her lungs grew.

With the murky waters, she couldn't tell just how far it was to the surface. How far had those Splashdowns taken her?

The water started to lighten up as she swam, not sure how much longer she would las—

And then Lily broke the surface suddenly and the bright sunlight nearly blinded her as she treaded water, looking around.

"There!" She heard the voice of Lorne nearby, and spun around.

She and Eight were nearby, paddling over to her.

Thank goodness.

She was saved.

* * *

Once everyone had made it back to the Grizzco boat and Eight had disabled the jammer that had blocked Mr. Grizz from guiding the boat, Lily and the others laid on the deck as they were guided back toward Inkopolis.

Once Mr. Grizz had re-established contact with the boat, he was _furious_. His first order of business was to ban them from working shifts as one team. Then, despite having one more outpost to head to, he set about navigating the boat back to civilization. "The sooner you four are off this boat and out of my shop the better," he had grumbled.

The Agents would later leave the Grizzco front into Inkopolis Square, denied their bonuses (except for Lorne, but only because she was a proven profreshional) and head toward the subway station. Eight, having become one of the more technologically-minded of the group, took the drive they had recovered as Lily explained how old drive storage worked to the best of her ability. He would try to repair what he could of it, since the drive was waterlogged.

He left on the train, waving to the others.

They'd find out what was salvageable from the disk, eventually.

Remo, Lily and Lorne saw Eight off, and then headed back and over to Crusty Sean's stall to for a Schwaffle and a drink.

They'd earned it.


	3. On A Rail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agent 3 discover an unused and forgotten train line connecting the Deepsea Metro and the Inkopolis Rail System. This chapter takes place during Part 2 'Legacy', during chapters 7 and 8.

Deepsea Metro Central Station had seen better days.

The power had long since dipped into emergency mode, pitching much of the station into darkness. A third of the lights along the central platform were dimly lit, and everything else electric was unpowered in the station, aside from the trains which seemed to run off generators of some kind.

The doors of one such train opened, and two Inklings disembarked onto the platform, observed by a small, blue, bioluminescent creature.

"Thank you for travelling the Deepsea Metro with us," said C.Q. Cumber, the sea cucumber, in his usual conductor-y tone. "We hope you'll travel with us again."

"Until the next time!" A voice from inside the carriage called cheerfully.

"Don't worry compadre," the elderly inkling called back. "You'll see us again soon!"

"Iso Padre, actually," replied the voice. "I'll look forward to it."

The doors came to a close with pleasant warning beeps, and slowly pulled away from the station, leaving the inklings alone.

The elder of the two, Cap'n Craig Cuttlefish, was a war veteran, leader of a group that protected Inkopolis from the 'Octarian Menace'.

At least, they used to be a menace. Craig wasn't too sure anymore, what with this whole 'Agent 8' business.

Time and aging had sapped him of his body's capacity to create ink, and his body itself had very little fat. While he was in no capacity to fight anymore, he still knew his way around a battlefield, and where the resources of the New Squidbeak Splatoon could be focused.

That was where Agent 3 came in.

A male, young adult inkling with long hair that he often tied up when working, Remo had been working alongside Cap'n Cuttlefish for two years now, and had come to consider him as a friend, a guide along this side of the world he'd increasingly invested himself in.

They regarded their task with some concern.

The day before, their musician friends Pearl and Marina, their contact with the surface (since radio communication with the rest of the Splatoon had been... ineffective) had informed them that a human, or ex-human, had made their way into the ranks.

Never mind the fact that they were supposed to still be extinct...

But after what they had been through not that long ago, with the Thangs and the Metro and the telephone that had turned out to be a human-made AI bent on destroying them, the fact that there _was_ one, _confirmed_ human, running around Inkopolis and doing who-knows-what, and _part of the Squidbeaks on the surface_...

Craig had made the call.

They were headed to the surface to investigate.

And that started at the Central Station.

Large shards of plastic and glass were strewn about the main platform, not far from where they stood.

The remnants of the four "Thangs" that had nearly caused the end of Craig and his newest protégé, Agent 8. Craig shivered as he and Remo walked past it to the opposite end of the platform.

"You OK, sir?" Remo asked, having noticed. His longer tentacles were tied up so as not to get in the way while he was working.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine, Agent 3." Craig's eyes turned away from the wreckage as he reached the other side first, and gingerly eased himself down onto the unused track. "Once again I'm just glad you reached us before that telephone juiced us up. We're headed down this way." He pointed down into the tunnels using his cane.

"Right..." Agent 3 took one last look at the remains of the busted blender, then leapt down onto the track, helping the Cap'n down with him. "So this was where you met up with Agent 8, right?"

Craig nodded as they both headed into the tunnel. "That's right. You must have been long gone before we came to."

"I wouldn't know. The thing that attacked us must have knocked me away quite a bit, because I don't remember heading down here at all."

The light grew even dimmer as they walked, until the Central Station was a pinprick of dim light behind them and otherwise pitch black darkness forced them to tread carefully, running their hands along the brick wall. The only sounds they could both hear were their own footsteps and the sound of skin brushing on brick, reverberating through the darkness.

Remo forced himself to try to breathe normally - from all they had seen since they had returned to the Metro, Kamabo's strange Octarians had essentially vanished. They had not appeared at any of the stations they had previously inhabited, nor were in the NILS facilities itself. But even knowing that, the oppressive darkness of the deep underground did not make him feel at ease. For all Agent 3 knew, something could be waiting to strike...

He shook his head. This was not the time to worry about the darkness. He wasn't a child anymore, for goodness sake. He needed to focus on their task.

"Captain," he began, speaking quietly. "If this route does work and we get up to the surface... What's our goal with this... this human? The other agents?"

"Hmm." His leader took his time responding. It seemed he didn't quite know what he wanted to do. "Well, Agent 3... I suppose we should assess whether this 'Lily' is a threat. That Marina girl seems to think she's okay. One and Two must think so too, if they've taken her on board. But it would be good to know for sure."

"Right, but... what about everything _we've_ been through? Her turning up can't be a coincidence..."

"I don't believe that it is. There's a reason she's here. Whether she is aware of it, though... _that's_ the question."

"Marina said she wasn't aware of Tartar at all..." Agent 3 considered the information that they had had, from the dossiers and from Marina's chatroom. "Knowing that, what we've heard of her actions lines up. She's collecting stuff she knows of, that she's probably familiar with..."

"Supposedly she's on a mission, doing those exact things," Craig mused, as the pitch black tunnel started to turn to the left and, both men keeping their hand to the wall, they followed, seeing the glimpse of light past the next turn.

"Your granddaughters must see some value in that phone and the car..."

"Or they don't want to see it falling into the wrong hands."

"With the Octarians?" Three asked pointedly.

Craig Cuttlefish couldn't answer him.

"You're not sure anymore, are you?"

"...With Octavio, most certainly we can't let those things fall to him," Craig finally said, after some thought. "Especially if there is a chance there are old human weapons."

"But...?"

The elderly inkling sighed. "...But no, I'm not too sure with the Octarians as a whole at the moment."

Three nodded. Craig's whole saga with Agent 8, and Marina had probably caused him to re-evaluate some life choices.

Though they were the only Octarians he knew personally, besides DJ Octavio himself and the strike squad that had tried to control Turf War arenas on the surface during his first mission as Agent 3... Eight and Marina acted much differently to the other Octarians, or at least the Octolings. What was different about them...?

They had both been affected by the Squid Sisters' Calamari Inkantation at some point, Remo remembered that much. But there was seemingly something else the two of them had in common that set them apart from the other Octolings underground, and even the ones here in the Metro... at least, before they'd all vanished anyway.

Three thought on this as they rounded the next corner and was greeted by an upcoming station and - thank goodness, _light_. Cold, harsh lights, but light nonetheless.

Craig approached the station platform with some interest, noting the vault that /had/ been there (and unlocked by Agent 8 when the two had first passed through) had not been replaced.

This place had been seemingly forgotten by the denizens of the Deepsea.

But, knowing what they did now, Agent 3 and Cap'n Cuttlefish could see that the station was being used as a NILS/Kamabo storage area.

Signs, boxes and CQ Card ticket barriers were pushed up against the wall. And, oddly, his eyes were drawn to two filled infusion bags, drips attached, on either side of the station.

"Oh my goodness, those are blood bags," Remo gasped out when he saw them. "This place continues to creep me the hell out."

"So they are..." Craig stepped up onto the platform, Agent 3 not far behind, and examined one of the bags closely. Indeed, squid blood. Or perhaps more likely, octopus blood. Was it? The blue liquid looked more sickly and bright.

Come to think of it... Wasn't the color about the same as the ink the Octarians in those tests used?

The same ones Marina had said weren't alive...?

Wasn't it the same ink used in the satchel that had been affixed to Agent 8 while he was down here...?

"Oh, _fuck_. Cap'n... you'd better take a look at this."

Three's voice was slightly distant, as he'd made his way into the main area of the 'station'. Craig shifted with some effort, and swam through the inkrailing to the area to join Three.

And immediately saw what he was concerned about.

At first blush, he had thought it to be some odd station terminal that had become a dumping ground for unused contraptions.

The lines of additional blood bags along the wall, that had gone unnoticed the first time through, immediately drew his attention. "Just what were they doing here...?"

He told Three about his concern about the bags and the Metro Octarians.

"...Hmm." Remo thought a moment, looking a bit sick himself at the thought. "...The question is, was this blood to be infused into the Octarians, or was it drawn _from_ them?"

Neither option sounded particularly pleasant.

They didn't hang around for too long after that.

Agent 3 and the Cap'n continued down the abandoned rail line.

After they climbed through the tape that was supposedly to stop them, another ten or so minutes of walking and talking (Agent 3 was secretly glad for the talking) brought them to another station.

This one was the most station-like of all of the stations they had visited in the Metro so far, bar the Central Station itself. Though any facilities were boarded up, or taped off, Remo could see that whatever town, or city, or whatever this station was attached to must have once been a bustling hub of the Deepsea.

As it was now, though, it was nearly useless. Even the glass doors that showed promise of leading somewhere, possibly even upward, were locked, and neither man was ready to risk bleeding out or splatting themselves trying to see what was on the other side.

As they turned away from the doors at the rear of the station, the Cap'n pointed out a hole in the ceiling. Interestingly, despite the loss of power from the NILS Statue above, something in the broken crawlspace inside was still sparking. _Perhaps this is on another circuit,_ Remo wondered.

"Myself and Agent 8 must have crashed through here," Craig noted to him as he thought. "Since we both came to right underneath this hole."

"Huh..." Remo seemed astounded. "This is quite a distance from where I had come down. How...?"

Craig shrugged. "This Deepsea Metro must be quite... erm, deep."

They examined the few stalls, nooks and crannies in the station, but as they saw nothing of interest they quickly turned their attention to the next tape barrier.

Agent 3 stared down into the dark tunnels as they slid neatly past the tape. "So... into uncharted territory, huh...?"

"Indeed!" Craig stared into the darkness with him, scritching his beard. "Isn't it always with us, though?"

"Sure, but..." Remo gulped. An uncomfortable feeling was bubbling up within him. "If this doesn't work out, then what do we have? We either... try to climb the unclimbable statue, or we're just... stuck down here for good..."

"Well, let's find out what _is_ this way before figuring out what comes next," Craig told him. "As our friend Iso Padre has said, "there's no use in worrying in what _could be_, only in what _is_."

"_Has_ he ever said that, sir?"

There was a pause from Craig. "...Let's get moving."

* * *

The tunnels from that point forward were completely unlit, unpowered. After a few more bends it had seemed that the tunnel from that point went in a straight line, which put an end to at least anticipating the next turns, and Remo felt the journey would be mindbogglingly boring.

The realization that they needed _some_ light came after only an hour's walking, and the decision was made to double back to try to raid the stall at the previous station, in hopes that a torch or _something_ might be found.

The flashlight they 'borrowed' from that stall would be used only sparingly, for a few seconds every fifteen minutes to conserve power, to check the path ahead to see if anything changed.

But nothing ever did.

Idle conversation as the two walked died out eventually, leaving Agent 3 to only hear the sounds of their own footsteps on the gravel, echoing through the darkness.

It left his mind to wander.

He wondered how Cap'n Cuttlefish was able to cope in places like this.

_Nobody will know if he were to never leave this place alive,_ said a semi-robotic voice only he could hear*.*

Agent 3 winced and clutched his head. _Please... go away... Not now..._

This was why he was not a fan of the dark, and the near-silence.

Ever since he had come to, on a platform suspended beneath Off The Hook's helicopter, about a month ago, the voice of Commander Tartar had etched itself into his head.

It was bad enough that that... _thing_ had managed to assume control of his body, but even after he had been freed from its clutches, and the AI seemingly destroyed, his mind seemed to conspire against him, as every now and then that _voice_ would speak up, one only he could hear, voicing dark mutterings, intrusive thoughts. What he would give to be rid of the memory of him...

"You alright back there, Agent 3?" the voice of Craig called back to him eventually.

"I'm fine," Three said quickly. "Coast seems clear back here."

There was a pause from the Cap'n. "Well alright... Let me know if that changes."

"Uh... yessir."

Agent 3 tried to forget about the voice for a moment, and instead considered the situation they were in.

Not that there was much to consider for the time being. After having the background ambience of the Deepsea Metro Train for so long, the only noise they heard now was that of their own footsteps, their own breath. Occasionally, they heard the sound of water droplets somewhere in the distance. Surely that was just old leaky pipes...

_Prepare to drown, speck._

Remo's view snapped down to the ground. As if he would be able to see anything... "Fuh-flashlight, please..."

He was promptly blinded as the flashlight in Craig's hands switched on, pointed at the ground then panning up to the yawning infinite darkness ahead. "I don't see anything new, Three. What's up?"

"Are... you sure there's no water on the ground?"

"None at all," the Cap'n answered simply as he flicked off the flashlight. "Completely dry."

The voice in the back of Remo's head wasn't satisfied though. "Is it... possible that's changing?"

"Anything's possible, Three. I have faith in the quality of the construction of this place. Are you sure you're OK?"

"I'm _fine_, sir. I'm not hurt."

"That's not what I mean, Three, and you know it. You've been more anxious every time we venture off the train..."

"Must we really have this conversation now?"

"Why not? I'm concerned about you." The Cap'n began to prod at the ground in front of him with his cane. Hopefully, they would find out if the terrain changed before they bumped into something. He'd admittedly forgotten what the tunnels were like between the two stations he had seen this way. "Nothing else to focus on, anyway."

Remo said nothing.

"Do you trust me, Agent 3?"

That got him to stop.

"Of c— of all the— Of _course_ I trust you, Craig!" He raised his voice, shouting into the darkness. "What's this abo—"

"Relax, Agent 3. Let's stop for a moment." Remo heard the shifting of feet on gravel, footsteps, and then nearly jumped as Cap'n Cuttlefish's hand brushed his shoulder, then rested atop it. "Talk to me, Three," he said, close to him. "What's got you so paranoid? I've never seen you like this, in all our time working together. Has something happened?"

Remo said nothing for a time. He wasn't sure if he could say it and not sound crazy.

"Three...?"

"...He's... still in my head..."

"Hmm? Who?"

"...That... computer..."

"The telephone...?"

"He..." Remo chose his words carefully, unable to look upward toward where he thought Craig's face was and shaking lightly. "When he... was controlling me... he kept saying these things in my head..." He took a moment to breathe. "Telling me to do things..."

Craig patiently said nothing, waited for him to continue.

"Every time we leave the train... In the dark... I hear him again... saying those things. Telling me to kill them, or y-you, or myself..."

Cap'n Cuttlefish considered his protégé for a moment. He had already known that Agent 3's experience under the influence of the telephone had changed him, but nobody, possibly not even Three himself seemed to know the extent of the damage done to his sanity. He wished nothing more than for Three to know that he would be okay, that there was no reason to fear the dark, that Tartar wasn't really alive and living in his head.

"Do you act on these impulses?" he finally asked softly.

"No... b-but—"

"Then you are just like the rest of us." Craig pat his agent's shoulder in comfort. "We all have those dark thoughts at times. It is not the presence of those thoughts that determines our character, or in this case it does not determine that the telephone still exists within your head. It is your actions, your own words that tell us who you are. And I know you are noble, orderly, committed... and perhaps a touch lost in your work. But those values are _you_, and you've only become more cautious since our encounter at the statue.

"But there is no need to fret, Agent 3 - there is nobody here anymore who wishes us harm. It is just us versus the path ahead. And so long as we keep moving, and trust in ourselves and each other, we'll eventually reach our goal. Alright?"

Remo stood back, taking in what his mentor said. It was quite a lot - he wasn't sure he could digest it all. He did notice something though... "I... I think you've probably been hanging around Iso a bit too much, Cap..."

"Perhaps... he's a quite impressionable chap. Do you understand though? That telephone will never define you. You _mustn't_ let it define you, Remo."

Remo nearly jumped out of his skin. Cap'n Cuttlefish _never_ used his real name.

The only other time was after they had returned to the Cap'n's outpost after DJ Octavio's defeat, over two years ago...

"...Craig... What do I do?"

Craig thought for a moment. "We were having a good chatter before now. Was that helping you?"

Agent 3 nodded, forgetting for a moment that the pitch blackness made the gesture worthless. "I think it... distracted my thoughts enough, yeah..."

"I see. Very well. Let us keep moving." Cap'n Cuttlefish finally took his hand away from Three, and the two set off again, again keeping left. "Let me tell you some stories from the War..."

* * *

The tunnel stretched on for hours as Remo and Craig traded stories from their lives, theorised on motives, and occasionally devolved into discussions on nothing, like whether squid rings were better than onion rings, or somesuch. In fact, it continued for so long that eventually the two had to stop for the 'night' and nap to recover energy.

At one point Remo noticed that the tunnel had begun to curve upwards, giving the two hope that they were headed in the right direction. It didn't get any lighter, but their spirits were renewed and they kept pressing onward, with hope that their efforts would pay off. Craig wondered where they might end up, when this was all said and done.

The tunnels levelled out again, almost ten hours of travel later. Remo was too tired to care about the fact that conversation had dried up.

It was almost a shock when the tunnel turned, and then ahead of them, in the distance... _light_. And _sound_, far away, muffled, but sounds of other life.

"Thank goodness, Agent 3," Cap'n Cuttlefish said with a relieved tone, turning to him, with a slight grin. "It's the light at the end of the tunnel."

Remo laughed, despite himself, and pushed Craig away as they pushed forward.

Finally, after a few more minutes, they found themselves entering a new station. Signs on the wall told them it was Inkopolis Bay.

The rail line that they emerged on was seemingly unused, and while lights were on on the other two platforms of the station where other trains ran, the last, where the two inklings were, was unlit. Carefully, as some of the commuters on the main platforms watched, they crossed the station carefully, watching for trains until they had joined the rest.

Remo and Cap'n Cuttlefish took a seat near the station exit, and took a few moments to rest their tired legs.

"Oooh, fresh cosplay!" A younger inkling girl called to Remo, walking up. The Agent realised with a start that he was still in uniform, and his weapon was still holstered on his belt. "You make that yourself?"

"Uhm..." He glanced at the Cap'n, but decided to play along. "Er, some of it. I had a bit of help getting some bits together."

"Cool!" The girl looked impressed. "Who are you meant to be?"

"I uh." Agent 3 took a moment to think. "I'm a... I'm the villain from that last... Cod Hand game?"

"Never heard of it." With a look of confusion, she asked, "You look like you haven't slept well at all. You staying anywhere?"

"Well, my apa—" Remo stopped himself. Come to think of it, he'd been gone for quite a while. _Was_ his apartment still there? Or had they leased it to someone else by now? What about his stuff?! "...I'm not sure."

"Oh." With that, she put her backpack down and opened it, rummaging until she found what she was looking for, and pulled out a soft hoodie, which she thrust in his direction. "Here. I know it's not much, but it's supposed to be cold tonight."

"Oh... Um, thanks." Remo glanced at the hoodie in confusion. "Are you sure?"

"Of course!" She placed the hoodie in his hands, then turned away to rejoin her friend, who was watching them. "Well, have a good night, mister!"

"Uh... Thanks, you too." Remo smiled. With a look to the Cap'n, he murmured, "Cap'n, be honest. Do I look homeless to you?"

* * *

As they travelled the train line, Remo wearing his new hoodie over the top of his uniform, he took the opportunity to check in on Marina's Chatroom to update them and let them know they were safe.

Oddly, though, they weren't there. But Marina had left messages for them, in the hope that they would return.

DJ_Hyperfresh> Hi! I know you're not around at the moment Craig, Three, but I am leaving you this update, just in case you do come back to us and wonder what's happened.  
DJ_Hyperfresh> Callie, Marie, Lily and Lorne have invited Pearl, Eight and I to talk in the Square a couple hours from now about all the stuff that happened in the Metro and the Statue.   
DJ_Hyperfresh> So we'll be gone for a while tonight - don't freak out if you come back and we're not here, we haven't left you!   
DJ_Hyperfresh> I hope your travel is going alright... It's strange not having you both around. Stay safe! Hope to hear from you soon!

From there, the two formulated a plan. As much as they would have loved to just go back home, this seemed like the perfect time to introduce themselves and get to the bottom of this whole 'human' business.

So, they travelled directly to the Square, in hoped that they would catch the others.

They arrived at the station at roughly midnight, and as they were headed up, they heard a call of "Craig! Three!" in their direction.

Cap'n Cuttlefish and Remo turned and were immediately beset by hugs from who else but Pearl and Marina, Eight standing, smiling just behind them.

"You made it!" Marina exclaimed, grinning. "How'd you get here, though?"

"It was a longshot," Craig briefly explained to them, "but it seems services used to run between Inkopolis and the Metro, back in the day. How about that?"

"Whaaaat?! That's wild!" Pearl grinned and fistbumped Craig, having gotten in close enough now. "So, what, you managed to get a train up here?"

Remo shook his head. "Walked."

"What?! That's hardcore!" The inkling idol was astonished.

"Then, er, why aren't you two sleeping that off?" Marina wondered.

Craig answered that one. "We just saw your message about that meeting, so I hoped we could catch the others for a talk about this human business."

"Well, uh, they should still be there..." Marina glanced up toward the station exit. "Better be quick, though. They'll probably all be headed home too, soon."

Remo nodded. "We won't keep you then. We'll catch up a bit later, alright?"

"Sounds good!" Marina smiled as the three of them started to board the next train, that had arrived as they had talked. "See you then!"

"Take care, girls," Craig said as the two saw them off, then turned back to walk up toward the Square.

The Inkopolis Square was empty and yet lit up by the billboards and streetlamps above. To Remo it looked... serene, in a sense.

Craig and Remo didn't get a chance to look for long, as the sound of feet landing on metal caused them to hide in the small bushes outside the Inkopolis News studio.

"...That went well."

"You weren't expecting it to? C'mon, Lily, they're better than that, and you _know_ that. But see? They support us. We don't have to hide it. We can just be us."

Remo and Craig exchanged glances from behind the bushes. _This must be Agents 4 and 5._

"Well, c'mon," said the second girl, Agent 4. Lorne, supposedly. "Pretty sure there're still trains running this late. Let's get home before they stop."

Without another word, the two girls walked past the two male squids and down the corridor into the station.

Unshifting, Craig said, "Tail them, Agent 3. It's best you introduce yourself to them. I'll go talk to Agents 1 and 2. We'll meet back here at their Octo Canyon outpost tomorrow."

Agent 3 nodded as he also unshifted from his squid form. "Got it." He immediately took off, walking hurriedly back toward the station.

* * *

Remo had waited quietly, in squid form again, as the girls waited for their train to arrive. Once it had, and they got on board at the rear of the train, the boy followed them in, choosing a spot not too far away from where they sat, with plenty of room to lay down. Using his mantle as a blanket, he stretched out, like he was back on the Metro. He closed his eyes, pretending to have quietly fallen asleep within a few minutes.

For a little while the ride was uneventful. Every now and then Remo barely opened his eyes to make sure they had not moved.

"Lily...?" Lorne said finally. "If…if Tartar did have a way for you to go home… back to your time… would you take it?"

_Tartar...? I thought they weren't on his side... What did they talk about out there...?_

Remo slowly opened his eyes, just a touch, to watch them.

"It’s… complicated." Lily seemed to be taking her time to respond. "I… would love to see my friends again. To see my family again. To let them know I’m OK. To tell them of the wonderful world I’ve found here. And I… I’d kind of love to be able to show you the world that I lived in. But…if it was a one way thing, if I couldn’t come back, or if I had to be an inkling forever, trapped in that old world… I just couldn’t. Not anymore."

_Interesting. She seems to enjoy this world. Tartar certainly didn't. I guess Marina's right. Still so odd though..._

"I do miss them," Lily continued. "A lot. But I think I’ve been more successful under my own power in this world than I ever was in my own. And I have you, of course. And the others."

"Okay... I just… Is it bad of me to think that when you were talking about asking if there was ‘a way back’, that you still wanted to leave?"

"…No, I don’t think you’re wrong to think that…"

Remo continued to listen quietly, closing his eyes again. He was satisfied he was watching the right people.

"I’m committed. To this team. To you." Lily gave a deep sigh. "I just… want to know if that option was always there."

* * *

Lily and Lorne (and Remo) disembarked at the Inkopolis West station and quietly shuffled toward an apartment complex, Remo stealthily following behind the others.

As they climbed the floors, Remo wondered if they must live together. He wondered how long that had been going on, and how long they had known each other.

Remo finally saw them enter one of the apartments, and Remo, knowing the answers were so close he could almost grasp them, strode toward the door quickly.

He caught the door as one of the girls was closing it, and gently pushed it open a tad to see who it was.

He was face to face with Lily, and she didn't look thrilled.

"Excuse me, 1AM is not the time for visitors. If you really need to talk to us, there’s…" Lily went quiet for a moment, realising that they had just seem him on the train. She scowled. "_Excuse me,_ what are you doing following us? If you try anything, we’re the wrooong people to fuck wi—"

"I'm not going to try anything," Remo quickly said, raising his palms. "But I need to talk to you. …And I also need a place to stay for the night. I don’t know this part of town."

"No chance. Goodnight." The ex-human waved him off, but he didn't move, _wouldn't_ move.

He decided to take a chance. "Agent 5."

Lily blinked, and for a brief moment her face showed fear. Then it settled back into its previous expression. "Excuse me, _what_?"

"Agent 5. Real name Lily." Having thrown her off, he took his chance and pushed the door open, seeing the other Agent in the bed at the opposite end of the apartment. "And your friend, Agent 4, real name Lorne. I need to talk to you both."

He expected a reaction, but he didn't expect the way that Lorne had gotten up, walked to him and yanked him inside. "Okay, who the _fuck_ are you," she said with a scowl, face close to his, "and why are you at our door in the middle of the night?"

Remo easily forced her hands away from him, and stood back, as he untied his mantle from around his neck and slipped off the hoodie. "I’m sorry to pull this on you so late. We only just got back a few hours ago, and only just found where you all were, but I had orders to find you…"

As the hoodie came free, he pulled his Hero Headset from its pocket, and watched as Lily's and Lorne's mouths fell open.

"My name's Remo. I'm Agent 3. Captain Cuttlefish has asked me to come find you."


	4. Time Capsule

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent 8 finds out what is on the recovered artefact, and wants to learn more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3: '13 Oct 2019'  
Chapter 4: '9 Jun 2020'
> 
> ...oops.
> 
> I never meant to take so long to publish a new chapter! Obviously 2020 has been a hellhole for everyone, which has sapped some of my writing energy, but also a lot of my writing has gone toward scenes for the last two chapters in this Stories collection, and scenes for Part 3 as well! Hopefully that will mean that updates should start happening somewhat regularly again for the Begin Again series, since I have a lot of it planned out at the moment, even if most of what's coming up is still not written.

Agent Eight of the New Squidbeak Splatoon had no name.

That wasn't to say he wasn't known by anything - his testing number-come-agent codename had become his 'nickname'.

But after events in the Deepsea Metro, parts of his memory were lost down amongst the many stations, his true name among them.

What he did know - memories he'd recovered from the Metro and things he had discovered about himself since he had arrived in Inkopolis - intrigued him.

In his past he was a combat technician for one of the many squads for the Octarian army. He knew his way around weapons - he had a natural talent for learning his way around a weapon quickly, and for those he wasn't so great with, he could figure them out enough to surpass the challenge ahead - but his specialty was in the use of gadgets.

If his team needed communications blocked in an area, he was there. Wanted to make sure a target wasn't coming back any time soon? He would have a Disruptor or two on hand. Need to stop a remote-controlled boat from abandoning a teammate? He could deploy and operate a signal jammer like no one else.

DJ Octavio's military regimen had ensured that he was quite athletic and his body was reasonably toned, a fact he still sometimes appreciated about his old life. It had been a boon during his adventures in the Metro.

But while he hadn't required his athleticism yet in his new work as an Agent - though it came in handy in Turf War battle - he kept his body in shape, knowing it would one day come in handy.

As Eight unlocked and entered into his small apartment, carrying a backpack with two devices securely packed inside, he was somewhat excited.

He had just returned from the Tentaport Institute of Humanities, where its resident technology team had finally finished researching a unique type of storage Eight had delivered to them.

It had taken many months, but they had figured out how to recover, read, and convert data from a human-era disk drive into modern-day file formats.

The drive that Eight had brought in seemed to be full of multimedia - archived music, images and photography, documents, and even some video.

They had, of course, backed up as much as was readable from the drive for research purposes, but had also made a copy of the data for Eight to peruse on a modern device.

Which is what Eight had now.

Putting the backpack down beside the door, he removed both the original drive and the portable storage disk Tentaport's head had given him, a readable copy of the data they had recovered.

He crossed the living area to his 'memory wall', dedicated to shelves and displays of things he wanted to remember. It was something he started, initially to keep his collection of mem cakes safe but quickly expanding to include objects that reminded him of pleasant or important moments here on the surface. For example, a power egg replica, the tee he had been given when he had finally made it to Inkopolis, and - despite himself - a large piece from a shattered motherboard.

He set the drive down amongst these items, adjusting it til it looked 'just right' amongst the display, then left briefly to retrieve his laptop from the bedroom.

Bringing the devices back to the living space, he booted up the laptop, holding the storage disk in hand as he set the computer on his lap.

Fellow agent Lily had said at some point that these items from the human era seemed most likely to be things close to her. And while she had been mostly open to him about details about her world, she never went much into detail about her own life.

Surely she knows what the drive contains, then?

His computer had finished booting and sat at a cephalOS desktop, which he'd personalised with a new wallpaper and icons. Quietly, wondering what he would find, he inserted the disk into its slot and patiently waited.

A new icon appeared on the desktop, signifying the drive had loaded. Opening it, Agent 8 was greeted by a mass of folders and files. Among them he could see folders for music, pictures and photos, 'ebooks' - whatever those were - and video of different kinds.

After some thought, he clicked into the pictures folder, brushing his tentacle back and to the side to clear his vision. He was greeted with a folder of all sorts of picture media - from what he could see, it was home to artwork of various kinds, screenshots from computer programs or videos, and a few photos.

His attention was immediately drawn to the photos. The first one that drew his eye was of a cephaloid creature - but not with tentacles. Instead this seemingly candid photo depicted a person with these odd... strands of something on their head instead. It spread down the sides of the face in lesser quantities and rejoined under the chin, forming a... what, a long... beard? They had no eye mask to speak of, just eyebrows above each eye.

Eight realised with a start that the face structure matched the human skeletons he had seen around the Tentaport campus.

This... this was a human.

_Well, it wasn't the ugliest thing in the world_, he supposed.

Other photos depicted bedrooms, places - one place in particular depicted an old country town, seemingly old even for the time of the photo, judging by the condition of some of the buildings.

As he explored the photo folders, he kept seeing more humans - but moreso, the same humans, including the one he had first seen. He also saw other creatures he had never seen before - though plenty of them seemed to be about as fluffy as the Judds, if not as round.

_Oh, goodness_, he realised as he scrolled further and further back through the folder. _Lily kept years and years of this stuff._

As he scrolled through, he started to notice videos interspersed throughout as well. Excitedly he clicked on one, finding himself watching footage of some amusement park ride. It looked like something he might see at Wahoo World - a pendulum ride swung back and forth, gaining momentum before it started looping around. Behind the camera, a male's voice talked with a younger human girl who was occasionally on-camera while the people on the ride screamed and some sort of music played in the background.

Eight was fascinated by all these snippets of human life - a life _no one_ had previously known. Seeing all these different human sights and traditions... And, strangely, some of their traditions mirrored those he had witnessed here in Inkopolis - they celebrated Squidmas/Octivus, the turn of the new year, birthdays. And yet - other traditions he was seeing as beyond him, for example in one video, where the same person who had been filming most of the videos he had seen in this collection was following the younger human girl as she tried to find egg-shaped prizes around a house. Prizes that were apparently a food of some kind - whatever 'chocolate' was.

It clicked as the two in the video approached another, older duo looking for eggs, and one of them casually greeted, "hello Simon".

_That was Lily's previous name_, Eight remembered.

He didn't think much of this for a moment, only noting the coincidence.

Then he remembered - this drive had belonged to Lily. All of these things they had collected from the human era were things nearby Lily when she was taken from that world.

These were photos and videos _Lily_ had taken.

He gasped to himself, following that thought - the person holding the camera, that the Octoling had seen in so many pictures - _that must be Lily, in her past life..._

And these people, that he had also seen plenty of... they must have been her family.

Eight sat back, in awe as he watched.

So he wasn't just watching human life... he was watching _Lily's_ life.

He paused the video. As fascinated as he was, he realised he was intruding on a dear friend's private moments.

He contemplated for a few moments whether he should continue. Most of this _was_ private, after all.

Eight was also curious about what else he could find out about humans.

Come to think of it, didn't the girls say they had talked with past humans at that dreaded NILS Statue?

_Wouldn't it be fascinating to speak to one himself,_ he thought.

There didn't appear to be much stopping him. He just needed to take the first step.

So, he shut the laptop, swung it under his arm, and climbed to his feet as he searched for its carry bag.

_She should know_, he decided as he quickly headed back out the door.

* * *

When Lily answered the door at 2pm that day, she was unimpressed with Eight. "Dude, where've you been? The party's been going for nearly two hours."

"The... party?" Eight stared at her for a few moments, searching his memory. "Oh— Dear, sorry Lily, I..."

"Oh well, just come on in," she said, opening the door for him.

It was Lorne's triumphant return to ranked battle, and she'd been training hard with her new team for the past few months in preparation for the new season. And here she was - her first matches, broadcasted on everyone's favorite 24/7 Battle Broadcast Network as part of its ranked coverage, today seemingly focusing on many newcomer teams and placement matches.

Callie, Marie and Lily had made a day of cheering on her team from her apartment, snacks and food strewn about the kitchen countertop and around the couch they had gathered around to watch. Remo had joined them earlier and was preparing drinks in the kitchenette.

"_Aaand this match is now underway, the West Inkopolis Warriors versus the Angelsea Angelfish! It's a bright and sunny day here atop the New Albacore Hotel as both teams leap off the mark, firing about to fill their special meters on the way to this stage's sole Splat Zone..._"

"Wooo! You got this, Lorne!"

"Come oooon, Warriors!"

"You go, Four!"

Callie and Marie shared a bag of crisps among them as Lorne's Warriors closed in on the Angelfish, who were holding the Zone. Both turned as Eight entered the apartment. “Heya, Eight!” Callie waved. “Good to see you!”

“Hey there,” Marie nodded with a light salute, before turning back to the game.

“Hey, girls. Remo.” He nodded at the other boy as he entered. “Lily, I know I just got here, but can I speak to you in private for a moment? Oh,” he added as Lily shot him a strange look, “and bring your laptop. I need to show you something.”

The two settled for sitting on the bed, and as Eight handed Lily a flash drive to plug in, he explained. “I’ve just come back from Tentaport. They decrypted the hard drive.”

Lily blinked. She had forgotten about that thing. “Whoa, okay. You’re forgiven. So what’s this about then?”

Eight simply slid the laptop over to himself and opened a gallery application on it, directing it to a particular folder. He handed the laptop back to Lily as it played the Easter video he had found before.

Lily was silent as she watched herself roam around her old yard with her family. Her hands slowly rose to her mouth, and Eight could see she was tearing up, but her eyes stayed focused on the screen.

After that video, the application cycled through various other short videos, which ended on two that made the inkling begin to cry.

The first was a clip she’d recorded from the end of the Justice concert she had gone to – the _only_ concert she’d gone to.

And the second, which made her squeak, was a short clip she had recorded right after. She, or Simon, had gotten on a train after the show and was tired, exhausted.

Remo glanced up in her direction. Seeing the human face on the screen, his brow furrowed, and he walked over to join them.

Lily looked up and saw him, tears welling up, and got up from the bed, walking toward the door.

“Uh-?” Marie glanced up from the TV, and saw her leaving, and then saw the human’s face on the laptop screen. She made to get up, but Lily held out a hand.

“Think what you will,” Lily said simply, aware she was making a scene. “I’ll be back in a few. I need some air.” She glanced at the TV. “Keep me updated on the scores.”

Then she stepped out.

Marie glanced toward her cousin with a nervous look, then turned to Remo and Eight. “What just happened…?”

Eight was distraught. “I.. don’t know! I brought over the data from the Grizzco hard drive to show her and…”

“Lily saw me coming to have a look and I... think that set her off, somehow.” Remo was confused and felt hurt.

“Is that… Lily? _Was_, sorry...” Callie was staring over Marie’s shoulder at the image on the screen. She hadn't seen a living human before...

“Okay, okay, hold on a moment.” Marie eyed Eight. “Eight, you know this place better than the rest of us. Where’s she headed?”

Eight’s gaze travelled upwards. “She’ll be going to the rooftop. It’s safe,” he quickly added as Callie, drawing her own conclusion, gasped and covered her mouth. “It’s fenced up and used as a social space. Knowing her, she’ll be staring down at the street.”

“_OHHH! What a magnificent play by the Warriors, their opponents are all down and losing valuable time!_”

Marie grabbed the remote and muted the TV for the time being. _Sorry, Lorne._ “Right. Can you go check on her, Three? I need a moment with Eight.”

“Uh, yeah, alright.” Remo headed for the doorway. “We’ll be back.”

The girls saw him off, then Marie sat back down at the couch, turned toward Eight. “Take a seat, Eight.”

“Um, do you mind if I…?” Callie gestured at the laptop, the human face still plastered on it.

“Go for it.” Eight stood from the bed, walking the few steps over to the couch. “You’re not mad, are you…?”

Marie sighed, watching her cousin step around the couch and kneel before the screen, leaning onto the bed and unpausing the video player. “No, I’m just confused. So that came from the drive you, Three, Four and Five collected, yes?”

“That’s correct.” Eight sat on the seat of the couch. “I just picked it up from Tentaport today.”

“I see. Why are videos of Lily on there?”

“It’s her—” Eight started to answer, and then stopped, his mouth falling open. “Wait – you _know_ that’s Lily?”

Marie nodded, smiling. “I saw her briefly, before she became one of us.”

“Huh. …uh – it’s her hard drive. I thought she’d want to see…” After a moment, he muttered, “and I had some questions…”

“Right.” Marie nodded. “I mean, we all still have plenty of questions about humans. But…” She thought for a moment, and briefly glanced at Callie watching the laptop, enraptured. “So maybe… she just forgot we were all here and had a moment?”

Eight shrugged. “She seemed really into it, so maybe…”

“Not your fault then. Are you doing alright, by the way?”

“I suppose… I’m not sure I can ask her now though.”

“Maybe I can ask on your behalf.” The Squid Sister raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, that might be nice… Well, I wanted to ask her if…” Eight took a breath. “If there was some way I could learn more about them from her.”

“Hmm. Oh! Why don’t you get her to take you to the NILS Statue?”

“Wait, NILS?!” Eight’s eyes went wide. “I thought she had nothing to do with them!”

“No, no – she doesn’t,” Marie quickly reassured him. “I mean, well – that statue is most likely still broadcasting a signal from the past. She took her phone and a laptop there when a few of us went for her protection and ended up talking to _real_ humans.”

“Really?!” That seemed to cheer Eight up. “I would love to speak to one…”

“Organise it, then.” Marie smiled. “She’ll probably appreciate a reason to catch up with some of her past friends, anyway.”

"Uuuhm... okay..." Eight nodded, but he seemed nervous still.

Marie seemed convinced in him though, and so she'd unmuted the TV. She and Eight watched the battles on the TV while Callie was distracted browsing the laptop.

Lily and Remo returned a few minutes after, the female seemingly recovered from her moment but now embarrassed. She apologised to everyone and kept to herself for a while as they watched the battles.

Having the gang all together to cheer on Agent 4 as the racked up the wins (and close losses) really warmed Lily’s heart. She hoped that Lorne was as energised by her streak as they were, supporting her.

At some point, the coverage on TV shifted from the lower bracket Lorne had started on to a top tier. The crew, having eaten all the snacks, hung about for a bit longer, chatting with each other. By that point Lily had gotten over herself and was talking quietly with Callie about future social activities.

As the group filtered out, saying their goodbyes, Eight finally worked up the courage to walk back up to Lily as she was seeing Remo off. Callie had already left, though Marie was hanging about in the kitchenette.

"U-uhm, Lily?" Eight shyly said as she took a sip from the drink she'd left on the kitchenette.

"Hey Eight. You alright?"

"Uhh, well..." Eight shifted about as Lily's eyes turned on him. "S-so... that drive... First of all, I'm sorry about what happened before."

Lily sighed, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "I think that's more my fault, but... thank you for showing me those things." She smiled. "It was nice to see that old world again."

"That's... that's okay." Eight smiled. "Listen, I um... Stop me if you want... But.. I wanted to learn more about your world."

"Ah, well..." Lily scratched at her head. "Well I don't know how much I still remember, is the thing... It's been so long, now."

"Oh..." Eight bit his lip, and twiddled his fingers together. "The thing is... Marie said to me a while back that you'd been out to that... Statue. After we went to see the telephone."

"Ah... okay." Lily nodded. Marie must have told him about what happened out there. "So what do you want to do, then...?"

"Well..." The Octoling took a deep breath. "I... would like to go out to the Statue and talk to some humans about the old era. P-preferably ones that won't try to kill me..."

"They're still not alive in this time, Eight," Lily sighed. "Look, to do that you'll probably need my iPhone and my laptop. The thing is—"

"Your phone? Why?"

"Because it's a cell signal that Statue is giving out, not a home wireless network. My laptop can't connect to it on its own. But Eight—"

"Cool! When can we leave?"

"Eight." Lily frowned. "I can't... I don't have the time to take you out there. I'm setting up some new work at the club down the street. I don't know when I'll be available."

Eight's expression dropped. "Oh... can't... can't I go there on my own?"

"W-well, I don't think—"

"I can teach you how to drive our boat, Eight." Marie smiled, having been listening in from the other end of the kitchenette. "I can't spare the time to take you out there for a couple hours either, but I can at least set you up to get the answers you need."

"That works." Eight smiled at the both of them. "Thank you, Lily. Marie. I sincerely appreciate it."

"No sweat, man." Lily smiled at him. "If that works for you, that works with my schedule. I suppose when Marie's got you all set up then, let me know and I'll lend the stuff."

"Sure. I'll be in touch. Again, thank you..." Eight surprised her with a tight hug.

"Whoa, uh... no worries, man." Lily blushed and reciprocated.

With a smile and a nod, Eight headed for the door. "Take care, Lily. Give Four my regards."

* * *

The wind whipped past Eight's lone tentacle as his craft raced over the waves of the Inkopolis Bay.

The speedboat he had been loaned from the Squid Sisters had been stored in a private dock down the other end of Port Mackerel ever since a music video shoot three years ago, he'd been told. The only time it had been used since then was when they had taken Lily to the Statue.

Now it was his turn.

He felt nervous as the destroyed Statue grew closer. The last time he was here, the fate of the world hung in the balance. Even now, looking at the damned thing brought up awful memories of Commander Tartar (may he rot, forgotten in that forest).

He slowed the vehicle as he grew closer, and briefly turned his attention to the bag he had brought along. Opening it up, he removed Lily's laptop and phone, and set it on the dashboard of the speedboat. They were already powered on.

Now he just needed to wait for a signal.

The boat came to a halt alongside the sunken statue, on the side nearest an antenna that hung overhead. If Eight was going to get anything, he figured, it would be there.

The Octoling opened the laptop, entering the password Lily had given him. He did the same with the phone, and then followed the instructions she had given on how to activate the phone's network hotspot.

As she had told him, if there was a signal, the phone would broadcast it, and the laptop would automatically connect to it.

Eight sat and waited anxiously.

A soft noise sounded from the laptop.

Leaning across to it, he saw that it was starting to get notifications.

It _seemed_ to be working.

He smiled.

_What was it Lily said to do first...? Oh, yes, look at their version of the internet._ Eight looked around the screen of Lily's laptop for the icon she'd told him would be for the internet. Finding the old-fashioned compass on the screen, he opened the application, which greeted him with what he recognised quickly as a search engine.

_What to ask...?_

He stared at the search bar for a minute or two, wondering what to ask first.

Carefully, considering his thoughts, he typed his first question.

'Do humans like other creatures?'

The search engine helpfully suggested 'why do humans like other animals', and he decided to accept its suggestion, submitting his query.

The first pages that showed up were an... interesting mixture of different opinions. 'Why Dogs and Humans Love Each Other', 'Why People Care More About Dogs Than Humans', 'Humans are nowhere near special'.

Eight didn't click on any of them, just read the little blurbs the search engine gave him for each. It seemed that they _were_ capable as a species of liking non-humans. _Which explains Lily_, he thought to himself.

_I guess Commander Tartar was evil even for humans._

A noise from the laptop surprised him.

It came from a chat application. Somebody from it had sent some announcement to one of the many groups Lily seemed to be involved in. He brought up the application, and clicked on the top icon from the list. It seemed to bring him to a personal group chat, seemingly a chat with Lily and her friends.

His grasp of English told him that there were a few people online at the moment.

He _really_ wanted to say hello to them.

After a moment of thought, his fingers went to the keyboard and he started typing.

**Lily>** Hello? Is anybody around?  
**Lily>** I think this was the chatroom Lily told me to use...  
**Craven>** Hi there!  
**Lily>** Hello. It is a pleasure to meet you. I hope my English is good.  
**Craven>** Thanks! Yeah, you're good. How are you doing?  
**Lily>** I am well. I am very excited to meet humans! I am a friend of Lily.  
**Lily>** Oh. I should update my name and things. I am not actually Lily. How do I do that?  
**Craven>** Oh right! Uh... hi, Lily's friend. Just right click on your name, and it should have "Change Nickname". Click on that and type in whatever.

Eight examined the interface he was presented with. Its sense of design was (duh) unlike anything he was used to. He found the option 'Craven' was talking about through searching for it.

Eight typed in his name, clicked the big 'Save' button, then returned to the chatroom.

**Eight>** Okay, I have changed my name. They call me Eight. It is a pleasure to meet you, again.  
**Eight>** How are you today?  
**Craven>** That's a neat name. I'm doing alright! Just chilling out, mostly. You up to much?  
**Eight>** I have been learning to drive a boat. I got to see many pictures and videos of your time. Actually they're Lily's pictures. I am very interested in human culture!  
**Eight>** I had to drive the boat because of where this network signal is. I don't know if Lily has told you. It is a statue in the middle of the bay. It's a bit of a scary journey. We don't do well with water.  
**Craven>** Oh. Wait, are you an alien? Because that would be awesome!  
**Eight>** An alien? I am an octoling. I live in Inkopolis, where Lily has been!  
**Eight>** She is well, by the way. She could not make it today. She is trying hard to get a job DJing near where she lives.  
**Craven>** ...hold on, I need a minute.  
**Eight>** Okay. I will give you a minute.

Eight patiently waited a minute.

Or he would have, because the next message came in about 30 seconds later.

**Craven>** Okay, so... this isn't just Lily tricking me or anything, I don't think. Uh... sorry, this is a lot to take in.  
**Craven>** ...Wait, what exactly is an octoling?

_...Oh. Did Lily never tell these people?_

Eight scrolled the chat window upward, hurriedly looking to see whether he'd just given up a secret. _Oh carp oh carp oh carp..._

Thankfully, some of the conversation between members of the chatroom seemed to reveal that they did know about Lily and Inkopolis.

Eight breathed a sigh of relief, and returned to the present.

**Eight>** Octolings are Octarians that can transform between octopi and creatures with arms and legs!  
**Eight>** Lily says it's a 'humanoid' form. I guess I see why she thinks that.  
**Eight>** It's like how she can become a squid. We are like inklings I suppose, but instead of squids we are octopuses.  
**Craven>** Wait, what?  
**Craven>** Sorry, I don't know anything about octolings or inklings or Inkopolis. Yeah, she didn't tell me she could become a squid.  
**Craven>** Like, I don't have any reason to believe she'd lie about this sort of thing, so... I think I believe you.  
**Eight>** I will try to explain as best as I can...  
**Eight>** Because of things that happened here, she became an inkling. Inklings can turn into squids, though Lily doesn't like to turn into one very often.  
**Eight>** As I mentioned, I am an octoling. We evolved differently, but we gained a similar function in order to become an octopus. We both swim in ink.  
**Craven>** Does it hurt to turn into a squid, or an octopus?  
**Eight>** Inkopolis is the city where inklings live. Mostly inklings sorry. I moved there recently after... that's not important. It's a very big city.  
**Eight>** No. I would have to ask Lily if it hurts her. I remember her telling me it feels 'weird'.  
**Eight>** May I ask you a question?  
**Craven>** Sure thing.  
**Eight>** What is it like to have bones?  
**Eight>** Every time I see human skeletons at the museum I touch one and it feels very tough. Wouldn't that hurt?  
**Craven>** ...

_Did I ask a bad question?_

**Craven>** I... don't know how to answer that really. I've had bones all my life, so I can't really compare it to not having bones.  
**Craven>** It's kind of weird seeing skeletons and knowing that one of them is inside of me, but... I guess it's like asking me what it's like to have muscles.  
**Craven>** Does Lily have bones now, or did they... I guess, leave her body when she became an inkling?  
**Eight>** She does not. She tells me she was asleep or unconscious when she changed so she doesn't know what happened. I talked to her and Marie and Four about her change, but they never mentioned anything like that.  
**Eight>** Maybe they... er, melted? Nobody really knows.  
**Craven>** Alright...  
**Craven>** You said you're not good with water, but you can become and octopus and she can be a squid. Why aren't you good with water?  
**Eight>** What do you mean?  
**Eight>** I mean, I know Lily told me humans could be in water, but I don't understand why you're confused about us.  
**Craven>** I thought octopi and squid lived in the water.  
**Eight>** Did they...?

_That's news to me..._

**Craven>** Yep, they do. Wait, are you from the future?

_...Uhhh... Carp?_

**Eight>** ... Yes, I believe so. Sort of.  
**Craven>** ... well, I guess that's why I haven't heard of Inkopolis before.  
**Eight>** Yeah... sorry.  
**Eight>** Anyway. Since you asked.  
**Eight>** We can't touch the water. I think my grandfather told me once that we used to be able to, but when we evolved arms and legs we apparently lost the ability. Now we sorta... disintegrate and respawn elsewhere.  
**Craven>** Oh, that stinks! How do you get clean?  
**Eight>** Well we do better in oily substances like our ink. So we can still shower and bathe, just with clear oils.  
**Craven>** Ah, that makes sense. Anything else you want to know?

_Huh? Oh, wait, yes!_ Eight grinned to himself. _There was a reason I came here!_

He had begun to feel slightly annoyed that he had to explain his world and not learn much out of it. But _this_ was the opportunity he was waiting for.

**Eight>** Oh, yeah! I wanted to ask about the things you guys celebrate!  
**Eight>** One of the things I saw from Lily's photos was her and her family looking for these... chocolate eggs I think. It reminded me of this 'Springfest' thing that apparently happens once a year here  
**Eight>** And I was thinking about the things I celebrate, Octivus (apparently called Squidmas up here), that sort of thing.  
**Eight>** Do humans have anything like that?  
**Craven>** Yeah, we celebrate a ton of things! Birthdays, anniversaries, graduation, sporting events, and religious stuff!  
**Craven>** The chocolate egg thing is from a religious holiday called Easter, which is real weird to explain without getting into actual religion and symbolism and stuff that's probably not appropriate for this channel. **Craven>** Oh, and we celebrate the new year, too

_Yeah, on the wrong date,_ Eight thought to himself.

**Eight>** New year? Yeah, we celebrate that too!  
**Eight>** Oh so 'Easter' is religious? I wonder if our Springfest is religious...  
**Eight>** Although I guess the Splatfests are semi-religious enough...  
**Eight>** That's really cool though. I'm amazed we do a lot of the same things  
**Eight>** Marina would be really happy to hear that  
**Craven>** Cool! I mean, if you're from the future-ish, I guess it would make sense, although  
**Craven>** What is Splatfest?  
**Eight>** Oh, that's our monthly celebration event. See the big sport here is Turf War. Teams of four battle to claim the most territory over a few minutes.  
**Eight>** Splatfest is that, but over a whole weekend with every team that cares to sign up for one side or another  
**Craven>** Oh man, that sounds awesome!  
**Eight>** Hmm, what was the most recent one again...? Pancakes versus waffles for breakfast.  
**Eight>** It's really fun.  
**Craven>** That's a lot different from how our sporting events go, it's usually just "Team from place X vs Team from place Y"  
**Craven>** Who decides what the Splatfests are about? I'm guessing there's some sort of governing body.  
**Eight>** Kind of...? I was talking to Pearl and Marina about it some time ago, and apparently the Splatfest topics come from a printer... Nobody knows who or what's on the other end, but I guess the inklings made a shrine out of the space it now occupies...  
**Eight>** Inklings are weird...  
**Eight>** It's their shrine for Splatfests. So they just call it the 'Splatfest Shrine'. Something like that...  
**Craven>** That is pretty weird, yeah, but sports are real weird, I guess.  
**Craven>** Next: Who are Pearl and Marina?  
**Eight>** Oh, they're friends of mine and Lily's. They're a musical duo. And the current hosts of the main news program.  
**Eight>** They're really clever and cool... I owe them a lot.  
**Craven>** Ooh, awesome! They seem pretty cool. Hopefully they can help Lily with her DJ stuff.  
**Craven>** She's real good with mashups, maybe they can do a collab together sometime.  
**Eight>** I'm sure they probably will at some point.  
**Eight>** I remember not long after I met Lily for the first time, she surprised them with a mashup of one of their songs.  
**Eight>** And I think they've talked about doing some form of collaboration... but I think that depends on how Lily goes with her DJing, and if she gets a following at all.  
**Craven>** Ah, cool. I have confidence that she'll get there.  
**Eight>** I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear that. I'll pass that message on to her.  
**Craven>** Yay :-)

Agent 8 took his eyes away from the screen for a moment and was surprised to find that the sky was a vivid orange and red as the sun was just about to set over the bay. Had he really spent so long out here just talking?

He was amazed at himself. He didn't know he could lose time so easily just talking to someone on a screen. He looked back at it, and smirked to himself, shaking his head.

_Maybe humans were alright._

He didn't want to be out on the water when the sun was gone, though. So he sadly decided that it was time for him to say goodbye to the human on the computer.

**Eight>** I think it might be time for me to go... The sun is starting to get low and I would like to be back ashore before it's gone.  
**Craven>** No problem, it was nice talking to you!  
**Eight>** Thank you so much for talking to me! I'm glad there are more humans than just Lily that are nice and not evil.  
**Eight>** Oh, one more thing - Lily asked me to make sure that you didn't tell anyone outside of here about our time and our world. We have already stopped one human creation trying to destroy us... she would rather us not have to deal with more. Is that okay?  
**Craven>** Absolutely.  
**Eight>** Thank you :-) You are very kind.  
**Eight>** I hope to speak to you again soon one day!  
**Craven>** I appreciate it, and I hope to talk with you, too.

* * *

Lorne answered the knock on her door the following morning to see Eight standing there with a smile, holding Lily's laptop and phone. "Heya, Eight. Returning things?"

"Yep!" Eight nodded, and held out the electronics to her. "I thought I'd drop them off on my way in to the Square today."

"She'll be glad to see them when she gets out of the shower." Agent 4 smiled back as she took them. "You seem pretty pleased. You find out what you wanted to know?"

"Most of it, yes. I had a great chat with one of Lily's friends. Quite enlightening." The octo's smile widened and he brushed his tentacle out of his eyes.

"I'm glad. You'll have to tell me what you found out next time." Lorne grinned. "Lily and I have been going through that archive you gave her the other week. Did you know they kept pets just like us? And some of them had fur JUST like Judd and Lil' Judd!"

"They did a lot of things just like us," Eight nodded with a smile. "It's surprising just how similar to them we might just be..."

"You really think so, huh? I mean, seeing the photos, I wouldn't be too surprised." Lorne smiled.

"Yeah..." Eight nodded again, and seemed to be stuck on what to say next. "I... I think I should get moving. I won't keep you."

"No worries, Eight. Thanks for stopping by." Lorne grinned, and stepped out to hug him. "I'll let Lily know you said hello."

"Thanks. Oh-! Also," Eight started suddenly, remembering. "Can you let her know that her friend Craven says they believe that collab with her and Off the Hook will happen?" He smiled warmly. "I think Lily will like that her friends are still thinking of her."

"Aw, that's adorable. Of course." Lorne nodded. "Thanks, Eight."

"Thank you, Lorne. I'll be seeing you!" He grinned and waved as he turned and walked down the apartment hallway towards the stairs.

"See you soon, Eight!" Lorne called, waving back until he left her sight, after which she closed the door.

Lorne set Lily's laptop and phone on the kitchenette counter, looking down at them.

_So he got to talk with humans, huh...? Lucky guy._

But she pushed it from her mind quickly, and returned to thinking up battle plans for her next match, unmuting the TV on which the Battle Broadcast Network was showing ranked matches.

Humans were exciting, but...

Humans could wait.


	5. The Octopus Garden

DJ Octavio Takowasa, The Octobot King, leader of the Octarians, scourge of the Squidbeaks, and various other titles he'd given himself, was bored.

This wasn't entirely unusual, considering just how long he'd been incarcerated.

For nearly eleven months, he'd been kept in this damned glass prison, locked away from his kingdom, from any sort of society. The only people he'd seen on a regular basis were those blasted New Squidbeak Splatoon agents. Even Craig Cuttlefish had visited every once in a while, trying to reminisce with him about 'the old days' before the war. The fool.

For months the Squidbeak agents One and Two - the Squid Sisters - would check in to make sure he hadn't escaped, wasn't planning something. He had tried, many times, to get them to open up about their feelings, about their day, as Callie had once - the one time that had allowed him to overpower her and free himself. But it seemed they had figured out his game, and refused to interact with him on those terms.

But even they, eventually, got bored with him as they realised he wasn't going anywhere, and stopped showing.

There was one of them, however, that continued to visit him, and made living in this prison marginally more bearable.

Lily the ex-human had started visiting at least once a fortnight once that business about 'Commander Tartar', whoever he actually was, had faded away.

He had expected her to be odd. What he hadn't expected, and was surprised to discover, was that while the other inklings didn't dare to talk to him at length, she was okay with talking to him, answering his questions about her old life, and even more surprisingly, treating him as an equal.

Rather than talk down to him for his attacks on Inkopolis, she instead took interest in his 'DJ' title, talking to him about his musical career, and her own interest in performing. Rather than harass him for being the king of a people, the figurehead of a harsh government, she would ask him about Octarian society, educate herself about his subjects.

In return, she shared music from the human world for him, and together they talked about what that world was like. Lily would share food with him - more filling than the rations Callie, Marie or Craig would often leave him. And, incredibly, she seemed to consider him a friend, the more they talked.

It was odd - perhaps it was because she was not of their world, hadn't lived the Great Turf War and its aftermath, but she treated him as more of a person than the other Squidbeaks would.

DJ Octavio appreciated that.

Even if she _was_ still an inkling, on the side of the inklings.

Occasionally he wondered to himself if there was a way to turn her to his side. Or if there was a way to change her form once more, make her an octoling under his command.

For the former, it wasn't for lack of trying.

Octavio would tempt Lily with offers of power, fame, fortune. Would try to talk her over to his side, convince her to help him to escape. And although he had, a few times, succeeded in making Lily feel sympathetic for him, usually it only resulted in the same smirk and shake of the head from Lily. "Sorry Octavio. You know I can't do that," she would say, and she'd either change the subject or leave.

She knew where she stood. Even though he _hated_ that she denied him, it impressed him all the same that she respected her orders. If he could just get a pair of shades on her...

He remembered one evening three months back, when Lily had come to visit with 'exciting news'. It had come after a month of silence from her, or anyone.

DJ Octavio remembered the narrowed eyes he had given the inkling girl who had come up to him. "Hmmph. I thought that you would perhaps visit more often, human."

"Well at least you recognise me." Sitting cross-legged on the ground before him, once again stunned by his bulging green-purple eyes, Lily watched him carefully. "I can't stay long this time, but I figured you might have some input on something."

Without missing a beat, Octavio quipped back at her, "You could get in here with me, and I'll give you _plenty_ of 'input'." His face shifted into a huge smirk and he shifted one of his tentacles to press teasingly against the glass of his snowglobe.

"Wh- Oh! Oh jeez!" Lily flinched as she realised what Octavio was implying. "I've _no_ real desire to know about _or _add to your escapades, DJ."

"Gyahahah! Why not?! You'd consider it though, right~?"

Lily sighed, but her only response to the question was a moment of silence and awkward shifting about. That told him everything he wanted to know, and his eyes brightened in delight.

It was no secret among the educated inkling populace that Octarians reproduced asexually by cutting their tentacles. That didn't stop the more intelligent ones from mating for fun. Hell, the DJ himself had indulged on occasion.

And though he knew inklings took relationships of such a nature much more seriously, knowing that the ex-human seemingly wasn't opposed to fooling around gave him something to think about.

And it gave him leverage for a future attempt to get himself free.

"..._Anyway_," Lily finally said, changing the subject, clearing her throat. cheeks flushed. "I... jeez. I thought you'd want to know that the club I played the other night got back to me, they want me to do a biweekly set. I think your DJing tips over the past couple weeks did the trick, Octavio. Can I call you Tavi?"

"You may not," Octavio smirked. "I'm still royalty, you know.” He prodded the glass between them. "And I'm not a pioneer in the DJ space for nothing. You get any of the gear I recommended?"

Lily shook her head, still a bit flustered. "I got a mixer, that's about it. I've been lookin', but my knowledge around a computer setup has been fairly sufficient so far."

"You'll regret that eventually," the Octobot King countered, eyebrow raised. "Regardless of anything, you'll want to learn that equipment. You still pre-making your shows?"

"Yeah... mostly. It's just the way that I figure out mashups, is all."

"Kiddo..." Octavio didn't look very impressed, but still seemed to be thinking on it. "Those mashups are kind of your thing, are they? I think that's all I ever heard from you."

Lily nodded. "I consider that the whole 'thing' about my sets, yeah."

"Okay, so... hm.. Interesting. Perhaps then, pre-make your mashups, then mix them live? Gives you something to do besides tweaking knobs and settings."

"I suppose..."

"And hey, here's something I want you to try - set yourself a goal to make them live. With enough practice your crowd won't notice the difference. Heck, _I'd _be interested in seeing that."

"Wow... Thank you, Octavio." She found herself smiling at him.

"No sweat." The DJ smirked back. "What else has been happening?"

"Really?" Lily seemed genuinely shocked. "You _never_ care about my day-to-day life."

"I care!" He responded loudly. "Sometimes."

"Pssh."

"Besides, you're more fun to hear about than the others." He cocked his head to one side. "It's interesting to hear your unique world view."

"Heh." Lily chuckled softly and smiled. "Alright, well... Oh, y'know what? I wanted to create a style for myself after I got the big news. So, this is what I ended up buying for myself for my — er, 'DJ Neu Wave'!" She grinned, and slowly turned herself around.

Octavio examined her carefully, curious. She'd donned a black leather rider's jacket, with an image in reflective pins in the back. She’d also started wearing a different glove over her right hand to match. He still didn’t know why sheshe wore it...

She still seemed to be wearing striped spats, but it worked on her. Perhaps more than she wanted, he thought as he eyed the inkling's butt for just a moment longer, his gaze snapping back up to her face as she turned back to face him. "Not bad, kiddo. I think your long hair is working against you now, though."

"Is it...?" Lily bit her lip and cupped the ends of her tentacles in her hands. "I mean, they've been awkward to deal with at times... I just thought that was something I had to adjust to and live with."

"I don't know what your fellow inklings do with their tentacle care, Lily, but take a page from us. Why not just cut your hair?"

"Won't that hurt?" Lily's brow furrowed with worry and concern.

"Will it?" The octopus shrugged his tentacles. "Doesn't hurt that much for us Octarians."

"You're... basically cutting off your limbs though."

"And? They grow back."

"They do _not_." The inkling sighed in disbelief. "Stop bullshitting me, Octavio."

"You seriously telling me you’ve never cut your hair before?"

"This isn’t hair, Tavi. They fill the same purpose, but it’s _not_."

Octavio raised a few of his scarred tentacles, presenting them to her. "Look. Sure these are partly damaged due to the war, but I promise you I have severed my tentacles a few times in the name of continuing my species. And I bet you you've seen at least a few inklings with new hairdos."

Lily stared at the appendages in silence for a few moments. "...Okay, that seems a bit obvious now, I guess. Boy do I feel stupid."

DJ Octavio chuckled, raising an eyebrow. "Seriously. If you don't like your hair length, try trimming it down for a while and see how you feel."

"I might..." Lily spoke softly, nodding her head.

The two were silent for a moment, watching each other, relaxed. The cool night air blew through the Hideout.

"Man... I guess I should get back into town," Lily sighed, disappointed. "I promise I'll keep in touch more, Octavio. After all you kinda made this happen."

"You'd better, kiddo. And hey —" DJ Octavio shouted as Lily started to turn away, toward the grate back home. "Think you'd ever play a show on our turf?"

Lily tilted her head and considered it. "I don't see why not," she answered after a few seconds. "If you behave, of course."

With a smirky grin and a wave, Lily turned, shifted form and dropped into the grate, swimming back to Inkopolis.

DJ Octavio eyed the grate for about a minute or so.

Waiting to make sure the human had gone.

His mind began to turn, plotting out scenarios involving Lily and him.

And a pair of shades.

* * *

Late one cold, dark evening, the King was awoken by a sound.

The sounds of multiple bottle rockets in the distance. No - of course not bottle rockets, the sound of someone, _multiple_ someones, super-jumping.

Eyes popping open, Octavio listened quietly. Was someone out there? Foe or friend?

For a minute or so he heard nothing else over the gentle breeze.

Then he became aware of voices travelling from past the stone archway that led to the rest of the Hideout.

Octarian voices.

"...suggests their base might be up here. Stay sharp, team."

Hmm, the voice was familiar. One of his squad leaders...?

"A forward base in our territory?" Another voice in Octarian. "How fiendish!"

"What's the plan? Splat them all?"

"Heh, if anyone’s around." The leader didn't seem to take the question seriously. Octavio noted their voices were getting closer. "Would be nice to get a leg up on those Squidbeaks, eh?"

"It would, if _y'all didn't yak at each other on the way to your target!_" DJ Octavio finally bellowed into the darkness. "I can hear you from a mile away! Get over here already!"

The voices went quiet. Then the sound of pounding footsteps as a squad of four Octolings in combat gear ran up through the archway and spotted him, hesitating for a moment in disbelief before rushing over to him.

"DJ!" The leader called out as she reached the snowglobe. "Thank goodness you're alright! Are you hurt?"

"...Yeah, pretty hurt," Octavio said softly at first. Then, shocking the soldiers, he angrily yelled, "Hurt that I've been waiting a _year!_ Where in earth have you all been?!"

"P-please, my king, we apologise!" Again, the leader did the talking, but the other squad members looked distraught. "We've been scouring every inch of Inkopolis and beyond that we could! We didn't think—"

"And you didn't think to check your own backyard?!"

"Yes! No! We— er..."

The Octoling holding a Blaster lowered her weapon. "Everyone knows the Tentakeel Hideout never reports in anyway. We had no idea it had been overtaken until recently, sir."

"...Right..." The DJ still seemed unimpressed, but he let it go for the time being.

These Octolings were his crack offensive team - Forward Squad Ceph. They had operated together for many years, and Octavio trusted only them to competently take on the New Squidbeak Splatoon's Agents as they fought to control territories in Inkopolis.

Lux, the team leader, and the team's Octo Shot main, was one of a few distinguished graduates of Cephalon HQ's Combat Training Academy.

Kae, a Blaster main, was also the team's inksplosives expert.

Mori was a Charger user and the team scout. She knew how to best scout the territory they wished to control, and use it to their advantage.

And Renki, while not as experienced, was their Roller main and a promising bright mind when she wanted to. She was recruited for the team after their previous fourth's desertion - following DJ Octavio's defeat at the hands of Agent 3, three years ago.

Since these guys were around, Octavio knew he would almost certainly be freed, but perhaps there was more in it for him that this squad could help him with... His mind began to formulate a scheme. "Lux, we need to talk."

"I'm here. Should I send the others away?"

"For now. Mori, Kae, Renki ('_that is still Renki, right?' _He muttered to Lux - '_You didn't lose another one?'_), scout the area, there's bound to be something of interest here. And OY—" he suddenly yelled as three of the girls started to turn away. "Don't ransack the place. I have a plan, and I don't want to tip _their_ hand just yet." Octavio waved them off with a lazy, tired tentacle.

Lux, the leader, made sure the three had left their immediate vicinity, then turned back to the King. "Right. What's going on? Do you need freeing?" She examined the DJ's prison. "This... device... doesn't look too hard to crack."

"Of course I need freeing, you dummy," he sighed, quieting his voice, "But I can't leave yet."

"Sir...?" Lux raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'll explain. But look." He gestured with his appendages toward a particularly egregious gap that had been worn between the wooden base and the glass. He pulled away a small rock that he had placed to mask the size of the gap to emphasize. "This thing is damaged, but I've also noticed the seal is somewhat weak. There must be some way to loosen this enough that it'll just come free."

Lux knelt down to examine the opening, and the groove in which the glass seemed set into the platform base. There _was_ a metal plate that looked like it was holding the dome in place, but the more she examined it, the more she realised it was simply ornamental. _Stupid inklings..._

She stood up. "Yes, I think we can do something with this. So what's going on then? Why aren't you coming with?"

DJ Octavio smirked at her. "Lux, I have an idea. I believe you remember the strange human creature I sent your team to collect some time ago, yes?"

"One of our more embarrassing defeats, yes..."

"Well, _She's still here. _What's more - heh, I still can't believe this - is while I've been imprisoned, she thinks that I'm her _friend_."

"Friend...?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, that human's an interesting one. DJ too. From the bits I've heard, might fit in with me and the duo from Turquoise October. But, yes - she comes around every Friday and just sits and talks with me."

"She talks to you, sir?" Lux raised an eyebrow and brushed her wild tentacles away from her face. "What about?"

"Music things, mostly. Of course. Sometimes we talk about her world, sometimes ours. Certainly more interested in our society than the rest of those Squidbeak brats. She's been... quite nice, sorta."

"Ooooh." Lux smirked. "That's the nicest thing I've heard you say about anyone in a long time. Has the King got a crush~?" She teasingly asked.

"Lux?"

"Yes, sir?" Her smirk had broken out into a grin.

"Shut up before I put you out of commission. Absolutely not."

"Yessir." She continued to grin. "So the plan, then?"

"Yes." DJ Octavio focused on her. "I think with enough force the four of you can probably pop this glass cover out. So, here's what I think. We do that, and then set it up so it _looks_ like it's still secure - they're inklings, they won't look too closely."

"Got it." Lux nodded. "What about the human, though?"

"I'm _getting_ to that." Octavio rolled his eyes. "You guys come back on Friday night and hide. She'll come by to chat, and then sometime while she's here, I'll give a signal and we net her and I can _finally_ return home."

"Are... you sure that will work?"

"Positive. She arrives at the same time every Friday night. Like clockwork, right after her set." Octavio chuckled with a smirk. "That clockwork nature is going to be her downfall. Now come on, get the others over. Let's get this thing loose."

* * *

Lux, Kae, Renki and Mori gathered in a circle around the DJ's snowglobe. The team's weapons lay neatly by Cuttlefish Cabin, something that Octavio shot the squad a strange look for.

"OK, team," Lux said, taking charge. "We're going to try to slide the glass out of its groove. On my mark we'll slide it clockwise and up, then counter-clockwise and up."

"Moving it back and forth like that should loosen it up enough to get it free," continued the DJ. "Once I _am_ freed, we'll move onto the next phase. Everyone got it?"

Lux nodded silently.

"Got it," Mori nodded, getting her hands in position.

Kae also nodded, saying nothing.

Renki saluted. "Aye aye, Deej."

"Renki..." Octavio raised an eyebrow at her, pointing a tentacle at her. He seemed both confused and concerned by the nickname.

"Uh... yes, sir?"

"_No_."

Kae burst out laughing at his simple comment, and the DJ himself allowed himself a smirk. Renki quietly gave an embarrassed, "Sorry, sire..."

Lux moved along, ignoring the comment. She took hold of the glass now as well. "Everyone, in position."

Kae and Renki pressed their hands into the glass, ready to move it. Octavio, despite himself, held his breath.

_Was this really going to work?_

"Get ready!" Lux called.

The rest of her squad tensed, ready to move.

"Move!" Immediately Lux pushed hard to the right, attempting to push the glass upward at the same time. "One! Two! Three! Four!" With each call, she and the other swapped direction, pushing to the right, and to the left, to the right, to the left...

At first it didn't seem to be working, as the glass resisted them. But as they continued to move back and forth, eventually it seemed as if the groove into which the glass dome was set was starting to give.

"Yes! Keep going!" The DJ shouted, moving about excitedly inside the cage as it moved around him. It was only a matter of time! Fresh air and home seemed so close...!

With the sound of grinding glass, and a loud ‘pop’, the dome suddenly came free.

Octavio immediately halted the team. “OK,” he said softly after a few moments of silence. “Step aside.”

Ceph Squad immediately stepped away from the loose glass.

Slowly, Octavio rested two tentacles against the wall of the dome. Gripping the glass as best he could, he took a few moments to decide exactly what he wanted to do. “Lux, Kae, Mori,” he called. “Get ready to catch this thing.”

Obediently they got into position, on the other side of the glass, the DJ counted down and then both pushed forward while pulling downward on the glass.

Due to its shape, the dome tipped forward easily, and with the Octolings there to catch it without it shattering further, DJ Octavio was free to simply slide/float out the new opening.

He was _free_.

Setting the dome down, the girls rushed over to him. “DJ!” Lux called. “How ya feeling, boss?”

DJ Octavio breathed in the cool, fresh air, and looked upwards toward the sky. He let his tentacles fully stretch out – his limbs both complaining, having been cramped in such a small space for such a long time, and welcoming it, the octopus feeling a pointed warmth and relief in them. “_Aaaaahhh… _Freedom never felt so good before.”

He turned to the team with a genuine smile, and extended his tentacles toward them, pulling the girls toward him in a tight hug. “I very, very sincerely appreciate that you’ve done this, girls,” he told them, quite a departure from the demeanor they knew from him.

To himself he thought, _even if you found me quite by accident._

“Well, uh… thanks, boss.” Renki smiled, and with the others, embraced the king. “It’s good to have you with us again.”

After Octavio had let go of them, he sent Kae to fetch Gomez, his royal messenger, from the HQ and took a couple minutes to just slither on his tentacles around the Hideout, looking around at the world around him while Ceph Squad hung back at the cabin to give him some space.

_He was free._

_What did that mean?_

_Well_, he supposed, _it meant __he could finally return to his palace and __go back to __ruling and commanding his subjects, including the soldiers __currently accompanying him._

_It also meant that he could start planning__ his revenge against Inkopolis._

_Against those blasted Squidbeak Splatoon agents._

_And finally, _finally,_ he’d be able to capture the human__, research their technology__, and their __past civilization. After all the__ Octarians were surely more equipped to __make use of those discoveries than the idiots up here__._

_Yes. Yeeees. __Soon…_

Satisfied, relaxed, his limbs given enough opportunity to stretch and relax, he made his way out to where the kettles to the various Octarian caves lay. He looked out toward the bright city of Inkopolis in the distance, and scowled.

_Look at them. Flaunting all that energy. What an irresponsible waste._

"Y'alright, my king?" Lux said softly, approaching him from behind. She was alone. "Something on your mind?"

Octavio sighed, and glanced back toward the city. "Of course, Lux. I just... don't know how to phrase the anger I feel about being in captivity for so long. How have my citizens fared?"

"Ah... well." The octoling shuffled uncomfortably in place. "Well, as you can probably guess, most of our military have felt lost without you, sir. They - we - have done what we can to help our fellow Octarians, but, well, the command structure has fallen apart a bit. For the time being we've been doing what we can to help each other out in these tough times. That said..."

Lux bit her lip. She never liked having to deliver bad news to the boss. "There are... two issues that most need your attention. First off, some of your infantry and civilians have been deserting and going AWOL again. The biggest loss was just after your disappearance, sir, but over the course of the year there's been a drip-feed of escapee after escapee."

The DJ grumbled at this news, but he wasn't too surprised. "I'm vaguely aware of this. I was made aware that the damn Squidbeak Splatoon has an Octarian in their ranks some time ago..."

Lux turned and stared at him. "...What? Are you seriously telling me that an Octarian is _willingly _working with the enemy?"

"Yes, Lux, I am. It's as disgusting as it sounds. And before you ask, I am going to be the first one to rip him to pieces." Octavio seemed quite upset as he recalled the bits of information he had gleaned about the traitor. "Those blasted Squid Sisters and their music... Okay, what's the other problem?"

"...Well, sir..." Lux's voice became subdued. "There... have been several terrorism instances around Octopia by, well... other Octarians. Random incidents, but the same message from each perpetrator - they... wish to see you step down as king. Though we've not been able to prove it yet, we suspect there is an organised group behind the scenes of these attacks."

DJ Octavio was silent. He seemed to tremble, just slightly.

"Sir...?"

"They realise what a king _is_, right?" He said, turning to face her again. Lux could feel the heat of his anger bubbling up within him. "I was chosen, _by royal blood_, to lead our society to greater things! These treasonous dogs! How dare they!"

"I know, sir."

"It's not a damned democracy!" Octavio grumbled. "Ugh... they can wait just a little bit longer..."

The DJ started to head back the way they had come, and Lux followed him. "We'll deal with it, right?"

"We have a lot of work ahead of us, but yes, Lux, we'll squeeze it in somewhere." Octavio passed through the arches as he headed back toward the open snowglobe.

In the entry area where the rest of Ceph Squad was waiting, a Tentakook turned from chatting with them to see Lux and Octavio return to them. He rushed over. "Sire!" He called, his mailbag swinging by the side of his short body. "Miss Kae has briefed me on your situation. I'm so glad to see you are alright!"

Gomez, the Palais Takowasa royal messenger, was one of a large family of Tentakooks. While he looked fairly standard in appearance, his clothing was what set him apart as an important member of his society, specifically the blue cap atop his head and matching bag in which he carried many letters, but mostly those of the royal family and official communications.

"Greetings, Gomez." Octavio nodded to him amicably. "I have some orders for you to send back home. One second..."

He slithered over to the snowglobe platform. “Alright folks,” he called to the others, gesturing toward the glass dome. “Help me get this thing back on.”

“WHAT?!” Mori gasped at him. “Why are you getting back in there, boss?!”

“Huh?” Octavio frowned at her, and then shook his head. “Right, right. Lux, explain.”

As the squad prepared to tip the dome back into place, making sure it _didn’t_ slip back into its groove, Lux filled them in. Octavio would wait there until Lily, the ex-human was due for her next visit.

He, and they, would be waiting.

The four octolings lifted and slowly tipped over the heavy dome glass, and DJ Octavio ducked as it rose over his head, aiding the descent by guiding it down with his tentacles so that the glass hung slightly over the edge of the platform, allowing him to grab the rim when the time came.

DJ Octavio took a few deep breaths, nodding. "Well there we go. Remember, Friday night. Before 9. Be there."

"Got it, boss." Mori nodded and saluted.

"Will that be all?" Renki asked, glancing about.

"Yeah, I think we're done for now. Dismissed." Octavio began to wave them away, and as they turned around, he shouted out, "Actually no, hang on! Gomez! Those orders for you to relay back to HQ."

"Yes boss, what shall I tell them?" Gomez swivelled back to him, holding his notepad at the ready.

"Relay this message." Octavio paused for a moment as he figured out what he wanted. "Okay. Inform the Elders that I will return this Friday. And inform my Octocommanders that they need to increase military presence in every cave accessible from Octo Canyon ASAP, and have every forward squad at the ready for Zapfish acquisition as soon as I return. Once the Squidbeaks find out what we're doing, they'll be back with a vengeance, for sure. Oh, and inform Arthra that I'll have a subject for him soon to calibrate the shades on. Got it?"

"Got it." The Tentakook finished quickly scribbling that information down. "Alright! I'll run those messages over now!" With a quick bow, Gomez took off at a sprint, rushing down past the archway, and shortly they heard him duck down into one of the kettles with a 'clank', making his way back to Cephalon HQ.

Octavio nodded and relaxed. "Well, I think that's it. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, folks. Dismissed. I'll see you Friday. Don't fail this time," he added to them with a glare.

"We won't, sir," Lux quickly replied.

"Nuh uh," added Renki.

"You can count on us," Kae smiled.

Mori simply nodded.

"Good. Now get." Octavio waved them off. "Before anyone comes and sees you all."

Lux nodded and the lot of them took off down past the archway.

The octopus settled down in the dome, resting his back against it.

_I've waited a year to be free_, he thought to himself.

_I can wait a few days longer._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the ‘time skip’ between Parts 2 and 3, and so this collection is now complete.
> 
> The next chapter will be in a new work for Part 3 of Begin Again, titled ‘Down Under’... while there are a couple other short stories I want to do, I’ll have them as their own work outside of the main Begin Again ‘series’.
> 
> See you for Part 3!


End file.
